Photos of a Kentucky hunter posing with the body of a black giraffe she killed in South Africa have triggered an online backlash after going viral on social media.
Thousands of social media users flocked to Twitter and expressed outrage at Tess Thompson Talley, 37, for killing the black giraffe on a hunting trip last summer.
"Prayers for my once in a lifetime dream hunt came true today! Spotted this rare black giraffe bull and stalked him for quite awhile," Talley wrote in a since-deleted post on Facebook, according to USA Today.
The post said the animal was more than 18 years old, weighed 4,000 lbs and yielded 2,000 lbs of meat. On average, giraffes have a 25-year lifespan, according to National Geographic.
Efforts to reach Talley for comment were unsuccessful.
The pictures went viral only recently after being reposted on Twitter last month by the website Africalandpost. The online condemnation was swift.
Debra Messing, an actress best known for her role in the NBC TV series "Will and Grace," described Talley on Instagram as a "disgusting, vile, amoral, heartless, selfish murderer."
Comedian Ricky Gervais, who often posts about animal conservation issues, called Talley a profanity on Twitter and lamented giraffes being endangered.
Talley defended herself in an email to Fox News in a story posted on its website, saying the giraffe was a member of a South African sub-species that is not rare.
"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," she said.
Big game hunting is legal in South Africa, where the industry and related tourism brings in $2 billion annually, according to the BBC.
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