Hunter Sparks Outrage After Shooting And Posing For Selfie With Rare Black Giraffe

Trophy hunting in Zambia, South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe is legal, and these places have become popular destinations for people who like killing animals for no other reason than sport.

An American hunter named Tess Thompson Talley has received a lot of backlash for posting a selfie with a dead black giraffe—considered rare because of its unusually dark-colored, almost black spots.

The photos were taken in South Africa and feature the extremely proud Texan hunter showing off her recent kill, while the dead animal is folded over and its face is dug into the floor.

A lot of people were outraged at the woman’s selfies:

Some people on Twitter started dragging Talley through the mud, sharing photos of her other kills that she posted on her Facebook account.

https://twitter.com/nina_sisemore/status/1007677451537997826

Others brought some interesting insights to the table:

https://twitter.com/ma_Ndosi/status/1008293693755969537

About 1.7 million trophies were traded in the between the years 2004 and 2014, according to Discover Wildlife.

Out of those, 200,000—or roughly 20,000 per year—belonged to animals that are classified as threatened by the IUCN.

In Africa, Kenya and Botswana have totally banned hunting for sport. In Australia, France and the Netherlands, importing of lion trophies is now considered illegal, while the UK is still on the fence regarding this matter.

Talley’s photos are just the most recent reminder of the bigger issue of wildlife conservation that’s dividing Africa today.