Melissa Bachman's killing of lion prompts tide of anger at the TV host
A US hunter with her own television show has found herself in the crosshairs of animal-lovers outraged by her safari exploits in South Africa.
A US hunter with her own television show has found herself in the crosshairs of animal-lovers outraged by her safari exploits in South Africa.
"Melissa Bachman has made a career out of hunting wildlife, for pure sport," the petition launched by Cape Town resident Elan Burman read. "She is an absolute contradiction to the culture of conservation [that] this country prides itself on."
A "Stop Melissa Bachman" page on Facebook meanwhile gained more than 230,000 likes, which is almost nine times the number of followers of Bachman's own Facebook account.
Triggering the outrage was a photo that Bachman posted on social media on November 1 of her kneeling and smiling, rifle in hand, behind a lion she had apparently just shot and killed.
"An incredible day hunting in South Africa! Stalked inside 60-yards on this beautiful male lion ... what a hunt!" she wrote on her Twitter account.
The Minnesota native, who shoots with both firearms and bows and grew up in a family that went hunting every weekend, wrote on her Facebook account that she had earlier bagged "a beautiful Nyala and a Duiker" - two species of antelopes.
The Maroi Conservancy defended her, saying it would not apologise for her lion shoot in North West Province.
Sponsored by Winchester, a major United States firearms manufacturer, Bachman's show is carried on the Pursuit Channel, a relatively small Alabama-based channel dedicated to outdoor activities such as hunting.
"The more people that can hunt, the more people that can enjoy the lifestyle, the better," she said in October in a report on Minnesota TV station KSTP about the state's growing number of licensed female hunters.
Last year the US Fish and Wildlife Service released a survey indicating a rebound in the popularity of hunting in the US after many years of decline.