This is one of the photos that have people up in arms. (Photo: Tess Thompson Talley)
Though the hunt took place last year, photos of a Kentucky woman posing with a slain “black” giraffe are causing people to lose their minds on social media.
What brought the matter to light is when the AfricaDigest posted the pics to Twitter last month with the following caption:
“White american savage who is partly a neanderthal comes to Africa and shoot down a very rare black giraffe coutrsey [sic] of South Africa stupidity. Her name is Tess Thompson Talley. Please share”
White american savage who is partly a neanderthal comes to Africa and shoot down a very rare black giraffe coutrsey of South Africa stupidity. Her name is Tess Thompson Talley. Please share pic.twitter.com/hSK93DOOaz
— AfricaDigest (@africlandpost) June 16, 2018
Tess Thompson Talley, the embattled hunter, has defended what was presumably a lawful and ethical hunt.
“Prayers for my once in a lifetime dream hunt came true today!” she said in a Facebook post when she originally posted the pics. “Spotted this rare black giraffe bull and stalked him for quite awhile. I knew it was the one. He was over 18 years old, 4,000 lbs and was blessed to be able to get 2,000 lbs of meat from him.”
Talley has since deleted her Facebook post. But she did talk to Fox News about the experience.
“The giraffe I hunted was the South African sub-species of giraffe. The numbers of this sub-species is actually increasing due, in part, to hunters and conservation efforts paid for in large part by big game hunting. The breed is not rare in any way other than it was very old. Giraffes get darker with age,” said Talley.
SEE ALSO: Killing in the Name of Conservation: How Big Game Hunting Prevents Extinction
Talley also explained that the 18-year-old bull she killed was too old to breed and was a threat to younger bulls. She was told that it had already killed three younger, virile bulls that were capable of producing offspring.
“This is called conservation through game management,” said Talley, noting that it wasn’t a “canned hunt.”
Despite the facts, several Hollywood elites are attacking Talley.
Tess Thompson Talley from Nippa, Kentucky is a disgusting, vile, amoral, heartless, selfish murderer. With joy in her black heart and a beaming smile she lies next to the dead carcass of… https://t.co/gG9CWX4oXl
— Debra Messing (@DebraMessing) June 27, 2018
Comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted, “Giraffes are now on the ‘red list’ of endangerment due to a 40% decline over the last 25 years. They could become extinct. Gone forever.” He also called Talley, “spoiled.”
What Gervais doesn’t realize or chooses to ignore is that it’s not hunters who are responsible for the decline in the giraffe population. It’s the agricultural development of Africa over the past two decades that has caused them to become endangered. Turns out that big animals eat a lot of food and when fledgling farmers have to choose between their crops and long-legged eating machines, the answer is easy. It’s their crops, their livelihood, every time! Which means our furry friends are displaced or exterminated.
Without hunters and the millions of dollars generated from big game hunting, these animals would surely go extinct. If Gervais and Messing actually cared about conservation, they wouldn’t be publicly shunning Talley, they’d be praising her. Because spiteful words and misguided outrage on social media aren’t going to save these animals. Only smart and responsible game management will.
if the ones who are so mad at this woman were to look at the facts they would know they have nothing to stand on or would go after the country because their the ones selling these permits to hunt so she is not breaking any laws. they just hate anyone with a gun or that hunts, bottom line. from what i read this animal was going to die anyway so that is why the COUNTRY allowed it to be hunted in the first place.
Very much enjoyed the zebra we shot in Namibia..Excellent meat kinda of like pork…Anti’s might be able to get one at local zoo if real careful..
Having family living in Botswana, I’ve talked them about the.safari hunts in Africa. The back story about the shooting of the collared lion by the dentist was far different than that dished up by the media. The hunter was on a permitted hunt using natives guides. The guides lured the lion out of a protected area and then told the hunter it was legal to take down the lion. For this, the guides were sent off to prison. The hunter did not knowingly violate any game laws. Local tribes are not, for the most part, allowed to harvest animals for their own consumption. Hunter’s usually give game meat to the local tribes. The decline of animal populations in Africa are largely due to poaching and depletion of habitat, not by the hunter taking permitted animals.
If you look at the Country’s in Africa that allow big game hunting the animals are flourishing. If you look at the Country’s that do not allow hunting the animals are being poached and decimated!
Think about it all you anti hunting people.
Great Job Tess!!!!! Congratulations on the giraffe!
Ricky Gervais and Debra Messing shutup and go away! We are sick and tired of your Hollywood Bullshit!
When you post stuff on the internet/social media…expect that there WILL be comments…both positive and negative.Just sayin’…
your comment sucked!
I despise trophy hunting. It has no purpose and is one of the most stupidest things I’ve ever seen. You can argue it’s conservation but that’s BS. Don’t get me wrong I hunt but it’s for food not a trophy. That animal had every right to live until it grew old and died. If you are a Trophy Hunter you are the scum of the Earth and nothing you say will change my opinion or others who are TRUE Hunters.
Really? “scum of the earth ” for the apparently unforgivable sin of killing a giraffe and harvesting 2k lbs of meat and paying considerable cash to the authorities and guides…
Wow buddy.
Richard dude is a typical dumb a*s.
I agree with Richard – I have no problem with killing all the deer you want and harvesting the meat, I even don’t mind elk, moose etc. but when you slaughter animals like this, or endangered lions, black panthers, leopards, tigers, lynx, wolves etc . . . I have a problem.
Despise it all u want but maybe u don’t know that every animal killed in Africa is eaten..You are obviously uneducated about different cultures and what they eat..Many people eat giraffes,elephants ,hippos and all the game taken by trophy hunters plus all the trackers and help are paid…Africa not America in any form with starving people by the millions and no money to boot…Go ahead and despise it while you eat well here ~
National Geographic investigation found that money spent on vast majority of safaris does not go to conservation because of corruption..also .. they found that most game killed was on remote areas and with no refrigeration the meat is left to rot.. so wrong everywhere
This woman dropped a huge pile of cash to afford this hunt. Money that went towards the conservation of wildlife for future generations. She donated 2,000 pounds of meat to the locals. I’d wager that fed far more people than most butcher shops do in a day and probably way more than you or I have ever given to any soup kitchen. Her mistake was posting pics on social media for all to feed off of. The idiots who have seen giraffe’s in Toys R Us and the zoo believe that she probably stepped out of her air conditioned Range Rover, slit its throat and left it to rot in the sun. She wasn’t hunting in a petting zoo. But some folks let their emotions overrule their brains. Get real people, the meat you eat every day wasn’t grown on the shelves of your local Wal-Mart. Unless you hold roadside grave services for every squirrel you flatten on the highway and say a prayer for every slice of bacon you cram down your pie hole, you probably haven’t got much room to criticize her.
What point are you trying to make by putting Black in quotation marks?
That he’s a race baiting pos.
Right… that’s it.
“Black” is technically inaccurate. Giraffes get darker with age, hence giving them the appearance of being black. But they’re not born that way. Mainstream media was playing up the white-black racial angle, I put it in quotes to indicate what they were doing but to also signify to the reader that I was conscious of the error. Much in the same way I put quotes around “assault weapons” as a way to show that I know it’s B.S.
I can’t help but laugh when people comment on things they don’t understand. Killing this giraffe is nothing more than a management tool… At times some animals need to be culled from the herd for the greater good of the species. As long as the hunt was legal and the animal was killed in a humane way there should be no problem….What is a problem is the hypocritical left that has more compassion for a toothless old murdering giraffe than the life of an unborn child.
I agree with . . . “At times some animals need to be culled from the herd for the greater good of the species” I think the same thing everyday when I commute to work and back . . . If only there was a plague that could cull all these fucking stupid people for the greater good of our species!
The government already tried that. It was called “AIDS”.
I’m not a fan of trophy hunting, however if it was legal and she paid the fees, and the animal was not breeding, and was killing younger bulls, I can see the point in hunting it. The meat would likely go to the locals for food so its not a waste, hopefully.
However, nowadays posting stuff like this out on the internet in a worldwide community ruled in part by ignorant people and frankly schmucks, you don’t need to feed them more grist for their flawed mills.
Bottom line here is, go hunt, post it on a hunting website dedicated to that kind of community rather than just show it to the whole world on facebook or some other social media.
Hunting is not a bad thing, and Africans have been killing big game for meat for a long time before professional and amateur big game hunters showed up on the continent.
I’m not a hunter. But I support hunting as long as you eat what you kill. Can you eat a jiraffe? I guess, if you really wanted to. I do have experience in dealing with giraffes before and other wild animals. Why kill such a peaceful animal. It doesn’t take much to get a high power rifle, place the cross hair on the giraffe and pull the trigger.
First, I am a lifelong hunter. I hunt only what I eat or varmints. I never “trophy” hunt, but have no issue with those who do. I love Southern Africa and it’s stunning array of wildlife and have made many photo safaris there. You can ask any guide or outfitter there about main source of funding for wildlife conservation and they will tell you hunters bring in far more revenue than tourism. Without big game hunters, most of the animals I love to photograph would no longer exist!
I am always disgusted by the little minds like John and the Hollywood elite who condemn hunters as “murderers” but happily contribute to Planned Parenthood to fund the murder of the unborn. Am I the only one who sees the bitter irony here?
Trophy hunting and “conservation hunting” is just the killing of defenseless animals just for the joy of killing that animal. I’ve hunted for meat but NEVER for the rack of horns..Donald Trump Jr goes to Zimbabwe to kill elephants.. in an interview on the net next to his dead elephant, when asked why he enjoys killing elephants.?? He said, “I’m a hunter.. that’s what I do and I’m not ashamed of it.” Photos show him cutting off tail of elephant he had just killed for a souvenir..investigation found that the meat was left to rot..trophy hunting in Africa does NOT go to conservation but into pockets of corrupt government officials so investigations have found..
You have obviously never been to Africa and seen these animals in their natural habitat, but you had to get political. I doubt you have ever given a single dollar towards their preservation, yet you criticize and debase those who have given many tens of thousands of dollars to these endeavors. My entire estate has been willed to conservation organizations working tirelessly to save the rhino and pangolin! What have you done except whine? You are a perfect example of the little minds I referred to. KMA Roy!
being a hunter all my life do we really need to see this? how ignorant is this person not to realize the bad press that would certainly come of this.everyone look at me
he lovely lady did more for wild game preservation and food for the local natives than the Sierra Club does for trees in a year. Managed hunting is preserving game species everywhere it is practiced.
The irony is that she was called a savage, yet the South African government sponsors roving gangs to go out and kill white farm owners, which then seizes their property for reallocation to blacks. Who then is really the savage? Someone who legally kills an animal marked for culling anyway, or the gangs that murder innocent people based on their skin color?
Congratulations for killing this wonderful animal! Too bad for the animal not been able to defend it self. Now if you`re a real hunter, why don`t you go to after some one that can defend him/her self? Be courageous and go hunt some terrorists fighters and lets see how you do when the target also has a gun pointing at you.
Did I miss the part where she proclaimed her ninja status?
She killed a giraffe, which apparently is a big deal to her. Why does it matter to you? Were yours or any one else’s rights harmed by her taking this giraffe?
Is there a difference other than size and expense, between this and duck hunting?
Well bozo if you don’t know the difference between the two then you shouldn’t even own a firearm. So this cunt who probably lacks self esteem and confidence in her real life can now bring people to her house and show them how tough she is with a giraffe’s head mounted on her wall. As one person commented correctly, if you enjoy killing, go into the military and get assigned to an infantry unit, and lets see how you do when the object you are shooting at shoots back. Comparing hunting a rare animal breed to duck hunting here in America is the goddamn dumbest thing I have read all day.
Read your post again.
Now you’ve read the dumbest thing in your life.
John you are clueless and have not read the article. The Giraffe was old and hurting the current population, It was doing more harm than good. You should never let feelings get involved in conservation. Language you used shows you can’t think and actually understand the situation.
Did the cow you ate as a steak or burger defend itself hypocrite????????
How about that chicken?????
Has anyone pointed out your hypocrisy lately????
I just did, and unless you are a vegan, your statements are hypocritical, plain and simple.
Wow she got 2,000 pounds of meat. That is great. I wonder what rifle she used to take the animal?
All the whackos come out and scream at a woman for getting meat. They would have us eat nothing plants. If hunting is done in the right way it will not kill off the animal population but cause it to grow.
Nature has and always will take care of itself without man fucking it up. You don’t need hunting to help. Hunting is what got certain species put on the endangered list to begin with. When an animal gets to old, it becomes food for all the other species out there. Nothing gets wasted. Find a dead deer in the woods, and go back a week later and you will be hard pressed to find where it was. Everything is eaten.
If man is not part of nature, not part of the process, then why are you here at all, seems you’re nothing more than a parasite.
Hey ignoramus, BY LAW nothing gets wasted in Africa either, every African Nation allowing Big Game hunting has rules for the dispersement of the meat, as well as things like hide processing and horns and so on, ALL done locally to aid the locals and help prevent poaching.
You speak to that of which you apparently know nothing about.
If you don’t like guns or hunting no argument will sway you. The facts are, an animal that reaches that size and age is at the end of its life, in the natural world it would weaken and fall behind with the very young, injured or sick animals and be attacked an eaten by predators. Hunters contribute so much to conservation and local economies it is simply stupid and ignorant to criticize them! An animal that size requires a large area to exist that is also home to large numbers of non game species. With the high cost of hunting trophy size animals, it would only make sense that those areas that have trophy size animals would make sure they have plenty to sell. like it or not, hunting is a win win for those country’s that allow it.