Mother nature ruins act of kindness

Mother nature has intervened to ensure a cruel ending to an act of kidness in the United States.

A West Point army cadet trapped a mouse that he found in his barracks and took the trouble to take it out into the woods and let it go, even videoing his good deed.

The mouse even had a name - Whiskers.

It took a bit of coaxing to get Whiskers out of the relatively safe and probably warmer surrounds of a rubbish bin and out onto the snow-covered ground of what the cadet hoped would be his new home.

But, eventually, out Whiskers went, scampering across the ground to freedom.

And then the hawk arrived.

Just as the cadet was telling his mate behind the camera how satisfied he was by his good deed, the hawk swooped and Whiskers was gone.

The stunned cadet watched in dismay.