Artist eats swan
Updated on 14 January 2007
An artist has risked the wrath of monarchists - not to mention breaking the law by eating swan - a privilege only legally available to the Queen.
Mark McGowan - who describes himself as a performance artist - tucked into the royal bird outside a gallery in East London. He claimed it was a protest against royalty and the upper classes.
The police say they will investigate the incident - and could take further action.
Others who've recently eaten swan have also got in trouble with the law; in March 2005 the Master of the Queen's music no less - Sir Peter Maxwell Davies - was cautioned by police who discovered a swan carcass outside his house in the Orkneys. He said he'd found it dead and was using it to make a terrine.
In November last year 52-year-old Shamshu Mia - a muslim from Llandudno in Wales - was jailed for two months after killing and attempting to eat a swan in caught in a boating pool in a park.
He claimed hunger from his Ramadan fast had driven him to the act.
