White american savage who is partly a neanderthal comes to Africa and shoot down a very rare black giraffe coutrsey of South Africa stupidity. Her name is Tess Thompson Talley. Please share pic.twitter.com/hSK93DOOaz
— AfricaDigest (@africlandpost) June 16, 2018
A US hunter has come under criticism after pictures taken in South Africa of her posing with a dead giraffe went viral.
Images of the woman, identified as Tess Thompson Talley, posted on the AfricaDigest Twitter account last month have been retweeted thousands of times.
It described her as a “white American savage” and called on people to unite to protect wildlife.
But Ms Talley has defended the killing in a statement quoted by CBS News.
She said the trophy kill was actually helping conservation because by killing the old, male giraffe, she had prevented it from attacking younger giraffes.
“Now that the giraffe is gone, the younger bulls are able to breed. This is called conservation through game management,” her statement adds.
Ms Talley hunted the giraffe, which can reportedly provide about 2,000lb (907kg) of meat, last year.
USA Today quotes a deleted post on Facebook where she said: “Prayers for my once in a lifetime dream hunt came true today! Spotted this rare black giraffe bull and stalked him for quite a while.”
There is no separate black giraffe species, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Hollywood actress Debra Messing is among those on social media to have questioned why it was necessary to kill an animal “for fun”.
Tess Thompson Talley from Nippa, Kentucky is a disgusting, vile, amoral, heartless, selfish murderer. With joy in her black heart and a beaming smile she lies next to the dead carcass of… https://t.co/gG9CWX4oXl
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) June 27, 2018
Seeing pictures of that horror murdering a giraffe for fun honestly makes you want to give up on the world, I HATE them all #stopkilling #wedontdeservethisworld
— Megan Friel (@megan_rose93) July 3, 2018
British comedian Ricky Gervais also mocked Ms Talley’s decision to hunt the giraffe in a tweet.
Trophy hunting, and related activities have become controversial issues in South Africa where they are thought to earn the country $2bn (£1.5bn) a year.
