As the outrage on social media after the killing of the Zimbabwean lion Cecil by an American dentist still rages, the internet has found another target for its fury: Sabrina Corgatelli, a hunter from Idaho who has been posting pictures of animals she killed during a legal hunting trip to Kruger National Park in South Africa.
On her Facebook page, Corgatelli appears with the corpses of an impala, a crocodile, a blue wildebeest, and a kudu, among other trophies. But the picture that has attracted most enraged comments is one in which she poses with a dead giraffe wrapped around her.
“I got a amazing old Giraffe. Such a amazing animal!! I couldn’t be any happier!! My emotion after getting him was a feeling I will never forget!!!” she wrote.
In an interview with the US TV show Today from South Africa, Corgatelli defended herself by saying that everything about her trip was legal.
“Everybody just thinks we’re cold-hearted killers, and it’s not that,” she said. “There is a connection with the animal, and just because we hunt them doesn’t mean we don’t have a respect for them.” And, she added, “Giraffes are very dangerous animals. They could hurt you seriously very quickly.”
Her interviewer, Carson Daly, asked Corgatelli, who is listed as a senior accountant at Idaho State University, if she is concerned about suffering professional repercussions because of the pictures. ”How can an employer chastise you for something you do on your personal time that’s legally done?” she answered.
Quartz has reached out to Corgatelli via email and Facebook, and will update this post with any response.
On her Facebook page, the hunter also quoted a passage from the Bible’s Genesis in response to the criticism: “Now then, take your weapons, your quiver and your bow, and go out to the field and hunt game for me.”
Some have started expressing moral doubts about the internet’s mob justice following dentist Walter Palmer’s illegal killing of the lion Cecil. Internet users posted information about the hunter and his family, and his business.
Meanwhile, at least one commenter has already posted what appears to be an aerial view of Corgatelli’s house.