The Humane Society of the United States is criticizing the North Texas college student who’s been hunting African animals and posting pictures on her Facebook page.
Kendall Jones, a Texas Tech student from Cleburne, has generated controversy and international attention. She's posted pictures of lions, elephants and other animals she has hunted in Africa.
The Humane Society’s vice president for wildlife protection, Nicole Paquette, said in a statement: “Traveling halfway around the world to shoot some of the world’s most magnificent, and threatened animals is shameful. Many of the species that Ms. Jones has killed face declining populations due to loss of habitat and poaching. Amidst this crisis, trophy hunting only adds to the threats to the survival of these iconic species and is nothing more than a thrill kill. … Rather than pose for social media with these rare species, lying lifeless, Ms. Jones should support true conservation efforts to combat poaching.”
Jones, who's 19, has wanted to hunt since she was a kid. Jones has been in Zimbabwe and South Africa, hunting leopards, elephants, crocodiles and other animals with guns and bows. She has posted several pictures on her Facebook page of her posing with the animals. She has posted video delivering elephant meat to African villagers.
But many are outraged by what she’s done. One man told her he hopes she gets eaten by a lion. Another called her a coward. She’s also been called “scum,” “bimbo,” a “sociopath” and “horrible.” One person wrote: “Being a hunter myself I think you should eat what you hunt and respect what you kill. There is absolutely no respect in [these] pictures.”
Jones recently posted a picture on Facebook of Theodore Roosevelt posing with a rhinoceros he hunted and wrote on her Facebook page: “How can it be possible that someone can love the earth, and take from the Earth in the name of conservation? For some folks, they'll never understand. For the rest of us...we were born that way.” She says she will continue to hunt and “spread the knowledge of hunting and wildlife conservation.”
