Two men found guilty of harassing Dave the dolphin

There are drunks and there are drunks. Some people drink themselves into depression, others get silly. Some apparently like to harass dolphins.

Two British men, Michael Jukes, 27, and Daniel Buck, 26, were today found guilty of harassing a dolphin when they frolicked in the sea with it after leaving a party in the early hours of the morning, The Guardian reports. Specifically, they were found guilty of intentionally or recklessly disturbing a wild animal under the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981.

Dover magistrates court heard how the pair had "touched and stroked" Dave the dolphin as they went for a late-night swim at Sandgate, near Folkestone, Kent, in June last year. The bottlenose dolphin was a popular tourist attraction for visitors to the Kent coast, but a lack of recent sightings has led to speculation that Dave has since died.

A witness to the incident on June 9 last year heard one of the men shout: "People pay hundreds of pounds to do this in Florida, and I'm doing it in Folkestone."

People must "pay" when they do this in the UK, too, as those chaps learned the hard way. They were ordered to complete 120 hours of work in the community within the next 12 months, and pay £350 ($700) each in costs.

Filed under: Europe, United Kingdom