Here's a Reminder of Why Stopping to Help Ducklings Is Not Always a Great Idea

Why did the ducklings cross the road?

Who knows, but they caught the eye of a passing motorist who was fined after she stopped to help.

Hallie Bibeau was driving on a highway near Newfields, New Hampshire, on Friday when she saw a car ahead of her swerve, forcing her to pull into the center median, Seacoast Online reported.

She got out of her car and soon saw why the other car had swerved: a group of eight ducklings, their mother lying dead a short distance away, trying to cross the highway.

“It was an awful thing to see," Bibeau recalled, saying two of the ducklings were hit by cars as she watched. "And then to continue sitting there watching them trying to do it again, I just couldn't sit there and watch them try again.”

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Bibeau called 911 and then, as she waited, she managed to snag two of the ducklings, she told Seacoast Online.

But a passing state trooper took a dim view of her actions: He issued her a $44 fine.

“I expected a little bit of compassion for the situation," Bibeau lamented. "I was stopped because I had to slam on my brakes and I had to make the decision whether to continue to pull forward or do something about it. I'm an animal lover and I couldn't move on. A lot of people would have done the same thing I did.”

State police Lt. Nicole Armaganian explained the cops' perspective.

“Although we definitely have empathy for her, we understand she's a new mother… pulling into the [median] to gather the ducklings was putting herself and others at too much of a risk,” she said. “Her being a new mom, I think the last thing her husband wants is to be a widower.”

It would seem Bibeau had not followed the story out of Canada of a woman who stopped for the same reason — to help flailing ducklings — and wound up causing a wreck that left two people dead.

Bibeau said she sent the two ducklings she rescued to the Center for Wildlife in Cape Neddick, Maine, where one of them has since died.

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