Tess Talley, the 38-year-old hunter from Texas, who received death threats for killing a rare black giraffe in South Africa and eating it back in 2018, is back in the news to defend her actions.
Talley sat down with CBS for an interview where she explained that if she had the opportunity to kill the wild animal all over again, she would despite the significant backlash. Talley explained that she received menacing messages on social media.
The Donald Trump supporter, who works in a ball-bearing factory, said her employer got many phone calls from angry critics demanding that she be fired from her job.
The woman filmed a segment at her home in Odessa, Texas, where she happily showed off her exploits during her many hunting trips.
She also confessed that she was proud of hunting the animal because it was “delicious” to eat.
Talley also showed off the gun case she had made from the skin of the dead animal that she carries around and explained: “This is a part of the black giraffe that I shot, something I could take around with me, and have on my hunts! I also have decorative pillows made out of him, and everybody loves them.”
She said that she was right to kill the elderly male giraffe for it contributed “to the long term preservation of wil animals by managing populations” and provides funding for wildlife conservation.
Talley went on to reveal why she takes so much pleasure killing defenseless animals: “It’s a hobby; it’s something that I really love to do. I am proud to hunt. And I am proud of that giraffe. You do what you love to do. It’s joy. If you don’t love what you do, you’re not going to continue to do it.”
EXCLUSIVE: Hunter Tess Talley is speaking out for the first time since her photo of a giraffe she killed in South Africa in 2017 prompted worldwide outrage.
In a new CBSN Originals documentary, @adamyamaguchi followed her as she tracked a wildebeest on a wildlife ranch. pic.twitter.com/94Qc52KIAg
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) June 7, 2019
Talley confessed that it is hard to pull the trigger even though she loves to hunt: “Everybody thinks that the easiest part is pulling that trigger. And it’s not. That’s actually the hardest part. But you gain so much respect, and so much more appreciation for that animal because you know what it is going through. They are put here for us. We harvest them; we eat them.”
Kitty Block, the current president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States and Humane Society International, issued a statement bashing Talley’s reasoning.
Block wrote: “Trophy hunting of giraffe shows sheer and arrogant disregard for the imperiled status of an iconic species.”
Block added: “A 2015 estimate found that fewer than 100,000 giraffes remain in the wild in Africa, and our 2018 investigation revealed that nearly 4,000 giraffe-derived trophies were imported into the US over the last decade.”
What are your thoughts on Talley’s explanations?
