Texas cheerleader poses in dozens of photos alongside the rare animals she hunts on African safaris | In2EastAfrica – East African news, Headlines, Business, Tourism, Sports, Health, Entertainment, Education

Don’t let her diminutive size fool you: Kendall Jones, a cheerleader at Texas Tech, has faced down some of the world’s fiercest animals. But the fact that she’s encountered those animals — many of which are endangered — from behind the trigger of a gun has activists crying foul. Conserving by killing? 19-year-old Texas cheerleader Kendall Jones really likes to kill rare animals in Africa. While she pays for her legal hunts, her critics says she’s not the conservationist she claims to be

Big 5: Jones says her first kill was a rare African white rhino, part of her quest to bag the Big 5 African game animals (rhino, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard and lion)

Jones’ Facebook page, which features countless photos of the 19-year-old posing with the carcasses of exotic animals, has drawn particular heat, with nearly 50,000 people signing various online petitions seeking to ban her from the social networking site, or from hunting in South Africa.

Legal: The young hunter has many critics but also a lot of supporters who say what she’s doing is fine, since she pays the governments of African countries to kill the animals

Jones argues her activities benefit conservation and help support the communities she’s hunting in. For instance, a photo of Jones posing next to an incapacitated white rhino explains she’d helped tranquilize the animal so it could be microchipped and receive veterinary attention.

Hungry: Jones defends her killing of elephants by saying their meat goes on to feed hundreds of thankful village families

In another photo, Jones stands on the carcass of a dead elephant, surrounded by people who, she says, constitute “part of the village that showed up to take a little protein home.”




According to her Facebook page, Jones is looking to host a television show in January 2015.

Despite her arguments to the contrary, many visitors to Jones’ page aren’t buying her stated goals of conservation.

“I’m a hunter and proud of that,” reads one Facebook comment. “That being said I eat what I shoot and only hunt overpopulated animals that other wise [sic] would starve or get diseased. Trophy hunting majestic and rare animals so you can get paid by the people who sponsor you is sick! … Don’t make the rest of us look bad with this crap!”

Outrage over Jones’ exploits is reminiscent of the fury sparked by Melissa Bachman, a TV personality and big-game hunter from Minnesota, who killed an African lion in South Africa last year and posted the photo on social media.

Agencies

‘This time I got my leopard,’ writes Jones of a third safari she took at age 14. ‘And also took down a hippo to get 6 of the Dangerous 7′