Photographs, which were taken a few days ago in Ohrid, where one can see a tourist “from a neighboring country,” pulling out an injured swan from the water, allegedly to take a picture with it, which caused a wave of comments, reactions and condemnation through social media networks and articles in Macedonian and the world media.
Reactions range from absolute disgust to serious allegations to the institutions that they allowed such a thing to happen in the public eye.
Although some of the media reported information that the swan had died, he remains in the same place, at the entrance to the harbor at the monument Epiphany “The one who catches the Cross”. The right wing of the swan had been seriously damaged, stiff and completely motionless.
“My mother for several days now has been feeding the swan, who has a broken wing. In Ohrid there are no conditions to treat such an animal. We need an expert to examine and treat him. It is not life threatening, but he can not function”, a local resident from Ohrid told us today and sent us the photo below.
The swan needs to be taken to Skopje urgently to a vet, or zoo, where he will receive the appropriate treatment and the help he needs.
Meanwhile, after the reactions in Ohrid and the Macedonian public over the swan, the news about the battered, abused injured swan reached the pages of the respectable pages of the “Huffington Post“, “Daily Mail” and “Mirror“. The articles states that the tourist is probably from Bulgaria.
Information appeared in the British “Telegraph“, but the text has been withdrawn from their homepage.
The “Daily Mail” writes that “the bird did not react violently because swans used to the presence of humans”.
Serbian “B-92” reported the news with the comment that “people are prepared to do anything, even to hurt animals to make the perfect picture, but that does not necessarily mean they should endanger innocent creatures like the swan.”
