Kendall Jones is a 19-year-old Texas Tech University cheerleader with an unexpected hobby — big game hunting.
Jones’ public Facebook page serves as a photo diary of her big game hunting adventures. On her most recent trip to Africa, Jones posed for photos with a dead lion, leopard, and elephant, among others. The page also includes a biography and photos of her first big game kills when she was just 13 years old. Jones’ quest was to take the “Big 5” — an African lion, African elephant, Cape buffalo, African leopard, and White/Black rhinoceros. Some of these species are threatened or endangered.
Animal rights proponents took notice of these photos and Jones garnered herself a hypothetical spot on the Internet’s Most Wanted list.
There have been two petitions started in protest against Jones. One of which demands the removal of her Facebook page and has more than 120,000 signatures. The other is to deny Jones access to African states all together.
Jones hasn’t taken this criticism without sharing her side of the story. She explains the legality and reasoning behind each of her kills and attributes them to conservation efforts.
She explained via Facebook that the lion she shot was within an area “considered fair chase” and that controlling the male lion population within large fenced areas is important to lion cub survival rates. Jones also explains the the rhinoceros was temporarily immobilized for scientific testing and was not killed. She then moves on to the photos of her sitting next to and hugging a dead leopard.
“This was a free ranging leopard in Zimbabwe on communal land,” Jones wrote. “Within this area of approximately 250,000 acres, 107 head of cattle were killed in a single year due to leopard kills…so yes, my efforts do go to conservation efforts.”
One of the more controversial photos depicted Jones standing on the body of a dead elephant.
(Ed: As of 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, the photo no longer appears to be viewable.)
“Most people say ‘hunting is fine for food’ well, look here are all the people that benefit from this animal!” said Jones, who is seen in the picture surrounded by local African villagers. “These people only get meat when an animal is shot, they aren’t privileged enough to go to the local grocery store.”
Despite the backlash, it looks like Jones’ Facebook page might be safe. The company bans content that contains “excessive violence” but allows photos of “hunting as it occurs in nature.” A “Support Kendall” Facebook page has recently been set up for her fellow advocates of big game hunting.
