Braids and Bows/FacebookA 12-year-old girl who hunts African wildlife for fun insists she will keep doing it despite receiving online death threats.
Aryanna Gourdin, from Utah, has been blasted on social media after photos of her posing with wild animals she had slaughtered on safari went viral, reports The Sun.
But Aryanna says she is determined to carry on with her hobby, and that she has no regrets about killing the giraffe, zebra and wildebeest, despite being labelled a ‘murderer’.
Braids and Bows/FacebookSpeaking to Good Morning America, Aryanna said:
[Hunting] is something I cherish and enjoy and I want other people to see what I experienced.
I would never back down from hunting. I am a hunter and no matter what people say to me, I’m never going to stop.
Aryanna was taken on the trip by her dad Eli, who claims the giraffe was a ‘problem’ animal that was ‘eating up valuable resources other giraffes need to survive,’ which sounds a little suspicious.
Braids and Bows/FacebookHe claims the meat from the animal fed 800 orphans in a local village in South Africa but an awful lot of people are really not happy.
Masha Kalinina of the Humane Society International said:
When we allow children to participate in trophy hunting, instead of teaching them to respect creatures we are teaching them that it’s okay to kill for kicks and that animals are worth more dead than alive.
Aryanna’s gruesome pictures have predictably led to a shit load of online hate.
Braids and Bows/FacebookOne person wrote:
This disgusts me because being proud of a kill is one thing, but this is like a photoshoot and to me it’s not about killing for ‘sport’ and I don’t see a giraffe being something you should kill.
There is a difference in killing a deer to feed your family and harvest the pelt and antlers than killing a giraffe and taking pictures of you holding its heart. That isn’t right at all.
Braids and Bows/FacebookWhile a couple of people maybe went in a bit too strong:
I literally hope someone skins you, makes me wanna kill her.
It’s probably best we maybe don’t send death threats to school girls but instead take Masha Kalinina’s advice:
Humanity and compassion is the kindest example we can set for the next generation.
That sounds more like it to me…
