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Woman slammed for dead moose brag

An “outdoor enthusiast” has been harpooned online after she posted about killing a moose on Facebook.

“A huge congratulations to my partner in crime on harvesting this monster bull!” Jessica Grays wrote beside a slew of photos of a dead adult moose.

“Many years guiding these big animals and now he has one of his own! Alaska is seriously amazing and I count myself lucky for getting to come back every year! Weather hasn’t been on our side and may be stuck a little longer…”

Jessica Grays shared this photo of herself and her hunting partner last month. Photo: Facebook
Jessica Grays shared this photo of herself and her hunting partner last month. Photo: Facebook

The post has elicited more than 100 comments, the majority of them expressing anger and disgust and calling for “karma” to deliver its response to Grays and her cohort. Among them:

“Nature is something to stand back and admire. Not to murder, cut its head off, and nail to your wall.”

“What horrendous cowards these people are! Not hunters al all. Just murderers killing defenceless animals with high-powered guns. No skill there, just weak acts of [cowardice] by despicable insecure idiots.”

“Wow, that was a gorgeous animal. Did you kill him to feed your family for the winter? Just wondering, because I would’ve loved to have seen him, from a distance, on my next visit to Alaska.”

She also shared this photo of the moose's antlers strapped to her backpack. Photo: Facebook
She also shared this photo of the moose's antlers strapped to her backpack. Photo: Facebook

“It truly is beyond my comprehension that anyone gets joy and excitement out of killing magnificent animals. Something is definitely lacking in trophy hunters like you, probably a soul.”

Though her post did bring on about 40 likes, more than 120 reacted with “angry” emoticons and a handful with “sad.”

Adult moose can range in size from 360kg to twice that, and can be almost 1.8 metres, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, which reports that “about 175,000 to 200,000 moose are widely distributed throughout Alaska,” and that annual “harvests” range from about 40 to 1,200, depending on the region.

Hunting the animals in the state is legal and done by lottery, and some scientists have suggested that killing moose could actually save caribou, which are endangered.

Grays and her partner were hunting in Alaska. Photo: Facebook
Grays and her partner were hunting in Alaska. Photo: Facebook

Grays did not immediately respond to Yahoo Lifestyle’s request for comment.

Her story — of bragging on social media and then facing a resulting takedown — is similar to that of the Trump sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, who have posed alongside dead trophy animals including a leopard and crocodile, prompting critics over the years (led in part by Mia Farrow) to call them out for being “in poor taste” and “murderers.”

In 2014, a game-hunting cheerleader by the name of Kendall Jones also inspired outrage and even a Change.org petition, demanding that Jones be banned from Africa; some claimed that the furious criticism of her was fuelled by sexism.

The biggest controversy of this kind of recent years was, of course, the saga of Cecil the Lion — the 13-year-old king of the forest who was shot and killed in Zimbabwe by American dentist Walter Palmer. As a result, Palmer was publicly vilified for his actions and eventually said he felt regret over the hunt.

Much of this week’s blowback against Grays appears to have been encouraged by the Facebook page Coalition Against Trophy Hunting, Poaching & Animal Cruelty, on which a post on Monday features Grays posing with a host of slaughtered and stuffed lions. “Check her page out,” the post urges. “A lot more photos than this… please share/tweet name/shame (with her ego? the shame part will take a lot of work. Go for it).”

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