American hunter faces outrage after taking photo with killed giraffe

An American hunter is facing widespread backlash after posing with the body of a rare black giraffe she killed during a trip in South Africa. 

South Africa-based AfricLand Post first posted the photos on social media, calling the woman a “white American savage” for hunting down a giraffe on the continent. The woman is Kentucky resident Tess Thompson Talley, according to USA Today. 

{mosads}”White american savage who is partly a neanderthal comes to Africa and shoot down a very rare black giraffe coutrsey of South Africa stupidity,” AfricLand Post wrote on Twitter. “Her name is Tess Thompson Talley. Please share.”

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

USA Today reports that the photos Talley took were from a hunting trip in 2017. In a since-deleted Facebook post, Talley wrote that she spotted a “rare black giraffe bull and stalked him for quite awhile.”

“I knew it was the one,” she said. “He was over 18 years old, 4,000 lbs and was blessed to be able to get 2,000 lbs of meat from him.”

In an email to Fox News, Talley defended her decision to kill the animal. “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,” she told the news outlet.

The photos, as well as the subsequent outrage Talley sparked, comes about three years after the House passed the Global Anti-Poaching Act.

The bill came after a Minnesota dentist hunted and killed a beloved lion, Cecil, in Zimbabwe. The legislation was passed with the goal of increasing the penalties for wildlife traffickers, making them comparable to those faced by weapons and drug traffickers. 

BBC reports that in South Africa trophy hunting is a $2 billion-per-year industry. Buffalo, elephants and lions are often the animals targeted.