UK police are investigating reports of immigrants taking swans to eat from Winsford Marina in Cheshire, England, after images of the incident went viral on social media.
Cheshire Police said on Sunday they were patrolling the marina on Station Road after earlier confirming they were aware of reports of a man “being cruel to a swan” on Wednesday.
A police spokesperson said rumours that swans in the area were “being stolen so that they can be eaten” were baseless, and that a dead swan found on Sunday morning had been attacked by a fox and was unrelated to the Wednesday incident, as were other birds recently found deceased in the area.
“A number of birds have been found recently and were lefts in bags for the Council to remove. It appears that a fox has removed one of the birds (a swan) from one of these bags and dragged it to the grass area of the marina,” the Winsford Police spokesperson said.
Police said it appeared as if the man in the images had grabbed a swan by its neck “to have a picture taken before the bird was put down”.
“The fact that the male grabbed the swan is evidenced by good quality images, and investigations into who the male is are ongoing,” the spokesperson said.
Swans are a protected species in the UK and it is illegal to harm, capture or kill them, or damage their eggs or nests.
One popular X post about the incident was titled “They’re eating a swans”, a reference to Donald Trump’s remarks in his presidential debate with Kamala Harris about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, eating cats.
“In Springfield, they are eating the dogs. The people that came in, they are eating the cats. They’re eating, they are eating the pets of the people that live there,” the president-elect said.
The corporate media attempted to frame the claims that Haitians were eating pets and wildlife in Ohio as “baseless” or “misinformation” by quoting city officials who denied that it was happening, but ignored social media posts and conservative media reports suggesting the allegations were true.
Last year in Sydney Vietnamese immigrant Tom Quach was jailed for six months for stealing a protected Australian white ibis from a park while high on meth, beheading it, hanging it to dry in his shower and attempting to cook it.
He told police he had previously captured and eaten the native birds while living in Queensland and was confused about NSW laws.
A month before his arrest residents in Eastwood caught him trying to shove an ibis into a shopping bag after tying a rope around its neck and feet and clipping its wings.
