Rebecca Francis, who won the reality TV show Extreme Huntress in 2010, is coming under fire and even receiving death threats after a photo of her surfaced laying next to dead giraffe and smiling.
Comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted the photo with the caption: ‘What must’ve happened to you in your life to make you want to kill a beautiful animal & then lie next to it smiling?’
The tweet has more than 30,000 retweets and countless comments of outrage.
Francis responded on FaceBook, giving reasoning for shooting the animal:
“When I was in Africa five years ago I was of the mindset that I would never shoot a giraffe,” she wrote. “I was approached toward the end of my hunt with a unique circumstance. They showed me this beautiful old bull giraffe that was wandering all alone. He had been kicked out of the herd by a younger and stronger bull. He was past his breeding years and very close to death. They asked me if I would preserve this giraffe by providing all the locals with food and other means of survival. He was inevitably going to die soon and he could either be wasted or utilized by the local people. I chose to honor his life by providing others with his uses and I do not regret it for one second. Once he was down there were people waiting to take his meat. They also took his tail to make jewelry, his bones to make other things, and did not waste a single part of him. I am grateful to be a part of something so good.”
Francis has traveled the world for big game hunts. Hunts including lions, giraffes and zebras.
