A man was pushed into the river after he tried to intervene to stop a girl kicking a pair of mating swans.
Police have released images of the two they want to question in connection with this sequence of unusual events which happened in east London, England.
A video, released on Twitter, shows the girl lowering herself into the river to kick the swans, who appear to be mating.
A man with a stick then approached her and the group of around 10 youths she was with and says something to her.
He’s interrupted by a teenage boy, wearing a blue top, black shorts and a black baseball cap, who rides by on his scooter and pushes him into the water. The teen then makes a quick getaway shouting “have that.”
Metropolitan Police Superintendent Andy Cox said: “Awful viewing. Animal cruelty is an indicator of many other vile behaviors and a tendency towards other forms of violence.”
Twitter users were quick to respond to the incidents with one person writing: “There is NO excuse for this behavior. You know where this leads if not punished and that swan could die from its injuries elsewhere.”
Others suggested the girl was trying to separate the swans from “attacking each other”.
One person wrote: “It looked like the girl was trying to stop one swan from trying to kill the other one – as they often do at this time of the year.”
Whatever the reason these two swans were together we all need to realize that wild animals do not belong to us to do whatever we want.
This man did not deserve to be pushed into the water for trying to defend animals. Please share if you agree.