Photos of a female US hunter standing next to her "dream hunt" has sparked outrage on social media. The woman identified as Tess Thompson Talley from Kentucky shot and killed the rare black giraffe in June 2017, however, the pictures went viral on social media only recently. Trophy hunting is legal in a number of African countries including South Africa, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Posting pictures of her posing with the dead giraffe, Talley wrote, "Prayers for my once in a lifetime dream hunt came true today! 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."

The images took by storm after a local South African website Africa Digest took it up a couple of weeks ago. They took to Twitter saying, "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."

The incident gained further momentum after actors Debra Messing and Claire Cooper tweeted about the inhuman act. Here are their tweets:

 

While the giraffe is believed to be a rare breed, Talley told Fox News said it was not, but just old. In an email to the media organisation, she said, "The giraffe I hunted was the South African sub-species of the 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."

Julian Fennessy, Ph.D., co-founder of the Giraffe Conservation Foundation told Yahoo Lifestyle, "The giraffe in the photo is of the South African species Giraffa giraffe, which are not rare – they are increasing in the wild. Legal hunting of giraffe is not a reason for their decline, despite the moral and ethical side of it which is a different story."

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 03, 2018 09:40 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).