An angling club official is urging the RSPCA to investigate after finding the severed heads of four swans. Steaven Cooper, fisheries officer and secretary of the Beacon Angling Club, made the discoveries close to Mount Farm Lake, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.
In only one case was there a body as well and Cooper said he thought they might have been killed for food. He said: "We have found four heads, and only one of them had the body close by it. That was near the Inn on the Lake pub, so the person may have been disturbed while doing it. As fisheries officer, I found them all, with bailiffs on the lake, over the last three weeks.
"I have tended to find them early in the morning. There is an area of the lake that is currently out of bounds for fishing, and I have found them in that area, which is quiet. The swans are friendly, and an easy target. I'm beginning to think that people are doing it for food.
"It doesn't look like it was done by an animal, it was a sharp blade that took the heads off. I have seen animal kill, and it does not look like that."
He said he had been told by police that it was not a matter for them, and to contact the RSPCA. He has reported it to them today, and is waiting to hear back from them. Police had no information about the matter.
An RSPCA spokeswoman said: "As he says he has contacted us, I am sure we will get back to him. It is something we would certainly look into. In the majority of such cases, it is down to animal kill, but we do not know in this case until we have looked into it."