>The rich & powerful, that is...
>
>Pick of the Week:
>
>The Scotsman:
>
>Sir Peter's taste for swan has him fall foul of law
>Rated 3 in topic General; Politics; Humor; Philosophy; History
>>From news.scotsman.com on March 19 at 11:03 PM
>http://www.furl.net/item.jsp?id=2347299
Its nothing to do with rich vs poor, the people who are not like you are those of us who live outside big cities and grasp the connection between animals and food, and those who just don't get it that meat comes from animals and all animals are potential meat.
I can guess what the law would be so far as taking a swan that was accidently killed for the table though. The situation here is that it is illegal to possess game without the appropriate licence. For example I had a fallow deer run unto my car once on my way home - so I scooped it up and took it home to put in the freezer. But this was totally illegal, it was out of season and I didn't have a licence.
The fact that it was already dead doesn't make any difference. In practical terms, if the law were to allow people to harvest accidentally killed game, then the law against poaching would be completely unenforceable. Anyone could always claim to have "found" the game lying dead.
People aren't allowed to hunt swans here, although farmers often get permits to shoot them as pests when their numbers build up too much. (They can't be fenced out of grain crops) This is done as quietly as possible, since it is understood that dopey people who live in towns would be horrified at the thought of killing animals. (I blame Walt Disney, for convincing people that animals are really people.)
Dunno what the law is on eating swans that are culled under a permit. A mate of mine carried out the cull for a local farmer once, he cut the breasts off all the swans and took them back to his freezer. Bastard wouldn't share them though, so they must have been good tucker.
Bill Bartlett Bracknell Tas