Texas Tech Cheerleader’s Hunting Photos Stir Outrage With Animal Activists
Animal rights activists across the globe have expressed outrage at photos posted to Facebook by a 19-year-old Texas Tech cheerleader.
Kendall Jones recently posted pics of her posing alongside all sorts of African game, including lions, hippos, elephants and leopards to her Facebook page, in which she writes "I am from the great state of Texas pursuing my adventures in hunting."
Not everyone has enjoyed the Red Raider's African hunting adventure, however, and an online petition was created in an effort to get Facebook to remove Kendall's page, claiming it promotes animal cruelty. The petition had more than 67,000 signatures as of Tuesday afternoon.
Kendall, a sophomore at Texas Tech studying marketing and sports therapy, disagrees, and defended that "controlling the male lion population is important within large fenced areas like this." Kendall also told her haters that the meat from the elephant she killed was used to feed nearby villagers, and posted video of the excited villagers receiving the meat.
Kendall grew up in Cleburne, Texas, and said she began hunting with her father as a child.
"As a child, I would go with my dad on all his hunting adventures watching him on our ranch, as well as traveling to Africa to see him take his Big 5. I took my first trip to Zimbabwe in Africa with my family in 2004 (age 9) and watched my dad bring many animals home," she wrote.
Kendall said she returned to Africa when she was 13 and started her own Big 5 experience and that the first animal she ever shot was a white rhino.
In response to the petition and all of the Internet hate that came with it, another Facebook page, called Support Kendall, was launched, and had more than 13,000 likes on Tuesday afternoon.