American huntress Larysa Switlyk is facing a social media backlash, including death threats, for shooting a wild goat in Islay, Scotland.
CBS News reports that the negative comments came in response to a photo of Switlyk posing with the dead animal. The photo was captioned, “We hunted hard for a big one for 2 days and finally got on this group. Made a perfect 200 yard shot.”
Instagram users called Switlyk’s photos “sickening” and “disgraceful.” The backlash grew to a point that the Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of Ireland, pledged that Scotland’s government would “review the current situation and consider whether changes to the law [for hunting such animals] are required.”
Switlyk used a Twitter post to congratulate, Jason, the hunter that won a gold medal for his goat and the haters came unglued.
@im_PULSE tweeted, “That’s a grown man taking pleasure in killing…a goat? With a gun? Wearing camo? Was he spanked as a child?”
@HardingMike tweeted, “Well done – you shot a sheep. Easier than shooting a fish in a barrel since sheep tend to stand still eating grass. You, Mighty Hunter, with thousands of dollars worth of gear shot something that hardly moves / you won’t eat / but killing it made you feel good. Arsehole.”
And the hits kept coming.
Switlyk responded to the comments by pointing out that she is about to go off the grid for two weeks for another hunt. She said, “Nothing better than disconnecting from this social media driven world and connecting back with nature. Hopefully that will give enough time for all the ignorant people out there sending me death threats to get educated on hunting and conservation.”
On July 2, 2018, Breitbart News reported that huntress Tess Thompson Talley likewise stood her ground after facing a social media backlash over photos of her hunt of a black giraffe in Africa.
Africa Digest published photos of Talley’s hunt:
One respondent 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 tweeted:
But Fox News reported that Talley refused to budge. She said, “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.