~~July 3, 2014~~
Texas Tech cheerleader, 19, loves shooting big game in Africa — and makes no apologies for it
~Kendall Jones~
19-year-old Texan cheerleader provoking worldwide fury over hunting pictures on her Facebook page
The smiling blonde cheerleader happily posing in the photograph looks for all the world like an ordinary Texan student, but with one crucial difference: she’s posing with a recently shot dead lion.
The Texas cheerleader has infuriated many in the online community after posting photos that show her smiling while standing over wildlife she shot in Africa.
Kendall Jones, 19, makes no apologies for her hunting hobby, and talks earnestly on her Facebook page about hunting the Big 5 game animals in Africa, which include the lion, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard and white/black rhinoceros.
“In 2008, (age 13) I took my second trip to Africa to start my Big 5 experience,” she writes on Facebook. “The first animal I ever shot was a White Rhino with a .416 Remington!! On this trip I also took some plains game, such as impala, kudu and mountain reedbuck home.”
The Texas Tech cheerleader also wrote on Facebook that she had inked a development deal in January to create a new series based on her favorite sport.
Ms Jones, who claims she is “doing her part in conservation to make a difference”, is now the subject of at least two petitions, one of which has 100,000 signatures and calls for her page to be removed from Facebook.
The petition on AVAAZ.org asks people to sign “for the sake of all animals, especially the animals in the African region … where hunters are going for fun just to kill an animal”.
Another petition, on the website change.org calls for Kendall Jones to be denied access to African states.
The photographs have provoked a similar response to one posted by US TV presenter Melissa Bachman who sparked controversy by posting a picture of herself next to a lion she’d just “stalked and killed” in South Africa.
Kendall Jones’ critics have variously described her as “sick” and “depraved” for killing the animals and boasting about it online. However, not everyone is offended. Her Facebook page has over 17,000 “likes” and frequently draws positive comments.
Ms. Jones, who made her first kill, a White Rhino, on her second trip to Africa when she was 13, has also claimed that not all of the animals featured in the pictures are actually dead. Some have been tranquilized for educational use, she claims.
Her Facebook page states that she “is looking to host a TV show in January 2015,” and repeatedly claims that her actions are best for the reserves and help control population numbers.
“Hunters are the biggest conservationists there are,” she told the New York Daily News, adding “we want animal populations to grow and thrive!”
She wrote on Facebook that: “Funds from a hunt like this goes partially to the government for permits but also to the farm owner as an incentive to keep and raise lions on their property.”
One particular image of Jones, posing with an endangered rhinoceros, incensed animal rights activists.
Jones defended the image saying that it showed a live animal: “The vet drew blood, took DNA samples, took body and head measurements, treated a leg injury and administered antibiotics.”
“I felt very lucky to be part of such a great program and procedure that helps the White Rhino population through conservation,” she wrote.
Despite her protestations Jones’ Facebook page is full of negative comments. “I’d love to drop kick you into a lions’ den, see how you do without your gun,” one commenter writes. Another Facebook user writes: “No matter how you look at it, seeing people smiling over the dead body of such a majestic animal is just sad.”
Another is less diplomatic: “You are absolute scum. I hope a gorgeous African animal takes its own revenge on you one day for all the beautiful souls you have shot.”
~~SOURCES~~
http://www.people.com/article/kendall-jones-texas-cheerleader-african-hunting-photos-controversy
https://www.facebook.com/kendalltakeswild
~Published on July 3, 2014~
19-year-old Texas Tech cheerleader Kendall Jones has been posting Facebook pictures of herself posing beside dead animals such as lions, leopards, zebras and rhinos, which she hunts in Africa.
The images have sparked outrage on the internet after going viral while Jones has defended herself by claiming that she is helping the conservation of animals by posting the photos.
We look at Jones’s flawed attempt to justify her actions, in this Lip News clip with Lissette Padilla and Gabriel Mizrahi.
We ALL are connected through NATURE!!
We ALL are ONE!!
As I see it, and I’m perfectly aware that this is an opinion, animals are sentient beings, they were here on Earth before humans arrived. They shouldn’t be persecuted, used for profit or entertainment, exhibited or hunted.
Anyone can give me many reasons to justify hunting of any kind.
I can’t accept any of those reasons. Actions like these are beyond my comprehension, they are beyond me.
I pity the person who has this capacity in their soul. They are taking a life and a majestic one at that.
Favorite sport? Where is the sport in this? The animal has all the odds and everything stacked against him. The hunters are going for fun just to kill an animal.
Where is the sport in this?
It Is What It Is 