This is the soul-stirring moment a big goose lets out giant tears as it is about to be taken away from its home and its heartbroken owner decides he cannot bear to part with it.

The unnamed owner changed his mind last minute as the goose was already inside a car boot outside his home in Meishan, Sichuan Province, southern China.

The owner was going to give the big goose raised at home to his friend, named Ms Zhao by local media.

As new owner Ms Zhao was getting ready to leave with the goose in the back, the bird began crying.

Ms Zhao said that she could not bear the saddening sight of the crying goose, so she decided to return it to its owner.

Footage of the weeping bird which shows it sitting quietly in the boot with a sad expression on its face was later shared on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

User ‘There are stories of people’ gave a humorous guess about the reason, saying: “Someone got carsick.”

But most netizens appeared to have been touched by the goose’s emotional departure and asked that it never be killed.

The majority insisted that it possesses some sort of spirituality and that the crying was the goose’s way of pleading for help.