AN American hunting influencer has sparked outrage after she filmed a video of herself snatching a baby wombat from its mother.
Sam Jones, who claims to be a “wildlife biologist and environmental scientist,” posted the now-deleted video on Instagram capturing the moment she picked up the animal and ran with it as it dangled around in the air.
After racing across the road with the startled wombat, Jones held it up to the camera and said: “I caught a baby wombat!”
Meanwhile, the baby wombat’s mother chased after Jones, appearing extremely distressed.
This was noticed by the man filming the video who said: “look at the mother, it’s chasing after her.”
Jones said: “OK mama’s right there and she is p***ed, let’s let him go.”
She then released the joey back onto the side of the road.
The footage has been met with an influx of backlash.
But this is not Jones’ first or only distressing interaction with a helpless animal.
An article in the hunting publication Cowboy State Daily, where Jones went by the name of Samantha Strable, reported her goal of hunting her first black bear during the spring bear season in Wyoming.
Jones was also described in the article to have “stalked red stags with a bow in Chile” and slay “a wild pig with a knife in New Zealand.”
Responding to the backlash of her more recent engagement with the helpless wombat, Jones defended herself and claimed she only held the joey momentarily before returning it to its mother.
She wrote: “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.”
Despite her defence, outrage at her behaviour has continued to grow, leading her to delete the video from her social media and switch her accounts from public to private.
Affronted Australians have demand that Jones be reported to Australian Department of Home Affairs: “so they can ban her from ever stepping foot in Australia again.”
Others remarked she should be deported and commented: ‘”Arrest. Fine. Deport. Ban.”
Another wrote: “As a wildlife rescuer specialising in wombats I can tell you… that this is an absolutely terrifying experience for mum and joey.”
A third commented: “Oh my god. Why do people feel the need to just insert themselves in nature and desecrate it? Leave them be! This poor mother is trying to protect her young. Disgusting behaviour.”
