Holy hell.
These days, any hunter with a little bit of social media fame is going to catch some flack for posting a photo of a kill. So when hunter Larysa Switlyk posted this picture with a wild goat from the Island of Islay in Scotland, some comments were to be expected. Tens of thousands on Twitter alone? No so much…
Perhaps with the help of Ricky Gervais, some 21,000 plus comments, mostly negative, began lighting up Switlyk’s Twitter, but despite the public’s perception, she isn’t backing down.
“I will never apologize for being a hunter and I definitely don’t regret posting my hunting photos online,” Switlyk told Fox News. “People do not need to follow me on social media if they don’t want to see them. It’s really that simple.
“It’s also immensely satisfying and a privilege to get your food this way,” she added. “Whether this gets your goat or not, you are certainly entitled to your opinion. Even though violence and name-calling seems to be the way our society is going, it’s not the way I choose to hold a discussion.”
The interesting part of the conversation is that goat that she harvested is actually an invasive species, not native to Scotland. However, depite the fact that invasive species can often times be very damaging to the native plants and animals in the area, the public backlash has become so great that the Prime Minster of Scotland has promised to review the country’s hunting laws.
“When I got back on the grid I was in shocked at how out of hand just posting a photo on social media got,” she told Fox News. “They had advertised my address and while I was gone, people showed up at my door, looking for me. This is just beyond the pale.”
You may expect this for an elephant, a giraffe, a lion, or maybe even a bear, but an invasive wild goat?
Pretty crazy…
