Last week, we ran a story—which we posted on our website and Facebook—of the attempts of local residents to save a whale stranded along the Bavon shoreline in Mathews County.

Along with the article, we included a picture of some of the children who had been pouring water over the animal in an attempt to keep the whale alive until help could arrive. They had stopped what they were doing just long enough to turn around for a photo, their buckets also visible in the picture. And then they went back to work.

The attempts to save the animal were unsuccessful and it was euthanized. When we posted the story on Facebook, the photo drew the ire of a group that says it is for conservation of whales. Their initial complaint was over what they saw as a callous photo of children posing next to a dying animal. They also took issue with the stranding team at the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach, whom they called the “butchers squad.”

Unfortunately in social media nowaday...