Huntress Tess Thompson Talley is standing her ground while facing backlash for shooting a black giraffe on a recent hunt in Africa.
Talley, who is from Kentucky, appeared in a post-hunt photo showing herself, her rifle, and the giraffe. The Sun reports that she captioned the photo, “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. I knew it was the one.”
She added, “He was over 18 years old, 4,000 lbs and was blessed to be able to get 2,000 lbs of meat from him.”
The photos of the hunt were tweeted by Africa’s Digest:
Responses to the photos included one reader who wrote, “A very sad example of a person who lives for the thrill of the moment, and who has a dreadful sense of entitlement to kill for her own pleasure.”
Another person wrote, “I can’t imagine killing anything, let alone a defenseless animal who can’t shoot you back you. … What a sad state of affairs when human beings can actually do this. Shame on everyone and anyone who defends this type of behavior.”
Actress Debra Messing denounced Talley as “disgusting, vile,” and “amoral” on Twitter:
But Talley stood her ground. She told Fox News that the giraffe was dark because of its age and explained that the number of such Giraffes is actually increasing because of hunting:
The giraffe I hunted was the South African sub-species of giraffe. The numbers of this sub-species is actually increasing due, in part, to hunters and conservation efforts paid for in large part by big game hunting. The breed is not rare in any way other than it was very old. Giraffes get darker with age.
…
I get that hunting is not for everyone; that’s what makes this world great is the differences. But to make threats to anyone because they don’t believe the way you do is completely unacceptable. If it was any other belief that was different, threats and insults would be deemed hideous. However, for some reason it is OK to act this way because it’s hunting.
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.