A horrific picture is making the rounds on the internet and creating angry reactions.
It shows a mother swan that’s been hit by a car in a parking lot in The Hague, Netherlands. Standing besides the dead swan are her little cygnets and their father.
Stunned onlookers rushed to help — while the driver of the car sped away from the scene.
The event happened more than a year ago, but the image has started spreading on social media again — and it’s drawing some strong reactions.
Witnesses say they saw a car hit the swan and then rush away. They contacted the police, who later tried to track the perpetrator.
The male swan let humans help
Swans with cygnets are usually aggressive to humans. But this father swan seemed to understand that the humans were there to help. While witnesses tried to help the mother swan, the male swan and the babies stayed near their lost loved one.
Unfortunately, there was nothing the humans could do. Twenty minutes after the hit and run, the mother swan died of her injuries.
A photo from the scene was later posted on Twitter, where it received a ton of attention. Thousands of people commented, with many writing that the driver who left the scene was both cowardly and inhuman.
Eyewitnesses later saw the father swan swim away with his cygnets, and despite the awful tragedy, he continued to take care of his babies alone.
The death of a swan might seem small in this world where people die in war and starve to death every day. But at the same time, the way we treat animals says a lot about us as people. There are those who would run over an animal and leave it there to die. And then there are those who would drop everything to try and help.
Which kind of person do you want to be?