Play stupid games, get kicked out of Australia.
The “Land Down Under” seems like a hard place to get kicked out of, does it not? With all of the wild, dangerous animals that live there, and the history of the country/continent being built by criminals that were shipped there from places like Britain and Ireland, you’d think it would take quite the heinous act to get Australians up in arms.
Thanks to this influencer from the United States, we now know what line a person has to cross to garner calls for banishment.
Sam Jones, who calls herself an wildlife biologist and environmental scientist, was on a visit to Australia when she came across a baby wombat and its mother on the side of the road. As influencers typically do, she thought, “How could I exploit this situation for my own personal gain?” and she decided to separate the young, endangered marsupial from its mama.
Jones had someone else take a video of the encounter, which included the mother wombat running after her kiddo in distress, and she posted it to her own Instagram account. You know, to basically tell on herself. The backlash and criticism immediately started to flood in, prompting the influencer to take the video down… but not before social media users could screen record it.
The internet is forever:
@croc.turnbull This American tourist pulled a baby won’t away from its mum all for a laugh and likes…😡😡😡@Sam Jo #askanyaussie #crocturnbull #australia #wombat ♬ original sound – Croc Turnbull 🇦🇺
Borderline animal abuse, am I right?
The social media influencer released a statement in an effort to cool things down, but it wasn’t an apology as much as it was an excuse machine:
“For everyone that’s worried and unhappy, the baby was carefully held for ONE minute in total and then released back to mum. They wandered back off into the bush together completely unharmed.
I didn’t think I would be able to catch it in the first place, and took an opportunity to appreciate a really incredible animal up close. I don’t ever capture wildlife that will be harmed by my doing so.”
Probably should have just said, “I’m sorry and deeply regret picking up the wombat,” but I guess they don’t teach crisis management at influencer school.
Social media users – specifically those from Australia – are livid about this wombat pickup, and they’ve flooded every single post about Sam Jones with comments like these:
“Surely charges are pending?”
“She needs to be banned from Australia.”
“Charge both her and the guy and deport her!”
“This makes me so angry.”
“Disgusting behavior… why would you do that?”
Those are some of the more mundane comments. Since the backlash has heated up, Sam Jones has made all of her social media accounts private. For those not familiar with the influencer lifestyle, being a “private influencer” is an oxymoron…
