Three teenagers were arrested after allegedly stealing a swan treasured by their upstate New York community, killing it and eating it over Memorial Day weekend, authorities said in the town of Manlius, a southeastern suburb of syracuse.
The alarms were first raised earlier this week after Faye, one of the town’s most iconic residents, and four of her baby swans, known as “cygnets,” were reported missing after a Valentine’s Day parade. the fallen. The arrests of three teenagers for the alleged killing of swans occurred after a concerned citizen saw two baby swans in a store in nearby Salina and called authorities, Hatter said.
“Unfortunately, the investigation led to the discovery that Faye…had been murdered over the weekend,” the Malnius city police department said in an update on Tuesday.
The swan was not only killed, but was later eaten by the teenagers and the “family”said Sergeant Ken Hatter at a news conference. He claimed that the teens had sneaked into the pond area “in the middle of the night” and pounced on the bird while nesting “She wasn’t fighting and they were able to capture her,” she said, adding that the swan died in the pond.
Hatter said the teens had initially believed the swan was “just a really big duck.” After killing the bird, the teens took the bird’s remains to the home of one of their aunts, where the swan was cooked, Hatter said. The four baby swans were found safe and are now under the care of a biologist. tasked with overseeing the health and welfare of Manlius’s swans, Hatter said during the news conference.
One of the suspects, a minor who worked at the store, confessed to taking the birds along with two other youths, he said. The suspect said they planned to keep the birds as pets and had no plans to eat them. They now face charges including grand theft and criminal mischief in connection with the incident, Hatter said. Two of the suspects are minors, he said. The third, 18, had a hunting license, she said.
Swan hunting is legal in several US states, but New York is not one of them. The town of Manlius has been known for its swans for over a century, with its swan pond which long served as a local landmark and billboards and banners throughout the town emblazoned with an image of the bird.
“We’ve had swans for more than 100 years. We’re going to keep having swans. It’s part of this town,” Manlius Mayor Paul Whorrall said at the news conference.
However, Faye is not the only swan whose presence will now not be in the pond. The mayor said his partner, Manny, is expected to be pulled from the pond and moved to another location. due to concerns about how you will react to the loss of your partner, which was for more than a decade.
Swans, Whorrall noted, are known to form monogamous bonds and can “mate forever” with just one partner. Now that Faye is gone, she said there’s a chance Manny could turn “combatant” and could pose a threat to the four swans once they return to the pond.
“We’ll let the four swans grow and wait for two of those chicks to mate and then we’ll go back to business as usual,” Whorrall said.
The mayor said measures were being put in place to ensure the future safety of the swans, including security cameras around the pond.
“This is not over. We will continue to have swans and hopefully at some point we will be back to normal,” she said.
dm