Female Hunter Faces Charge of the Twitter Brigade Over Photo With Dead Giraffe

Hunter Rebecca Francis from Utah, USA, is the subject of worldwide infamy after comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted a picture of her posing with a giraffe that she had killed. "What must've happened to you in your life to make you want to kill a beautiful animal and then lie next to it smiling?" he wrote in the tweet, which has been shared over 25,000 times since April 13.  

Ms Francis, 41, is a former TV co-host and winner of the hunting contest Extreme Huntress 2010. She has been widely lambasted on Twitter over the picture.

Online vitriol has been directed at Ms Francis not only for killing the giraffe but also smiling for a photo afterwards.

I believe in hunting as a sport, but to kill a giraffe/zebra/elephant is terribly sad .

- Princess WonTon (@CaliiBaesian) April 16, 2015

I think hunting is OK but not shooting a giraffe in the head... Like cmon... It's a giraffe

- Trentatkinson (@trentatkinson_3) April 13, 2015

this girl killed a giraffe hunting and took a picture smiling with it afterward... I am so disgusted

- kels (@kelseyshannon13) April 15, 2015

I get hunting to a point, but how on Earth could anyone kill a giraffe?

- Valerie (@Valeriex83) April 15, 2015

I grew up extremely blue collar, and I respect hunting and cultivating livestock. But shooting a giraffe for sport is beyond awful. Jesus.

- Wade K. Savage (@WadeKSavage) April 14, 2015

Ms Francis, however, doesn't regret killing the "old and very close to death" giraffe. In fact, in a statement to HuntingLife.com, she said: I chose to honor his (giraffe) life by providing others with his uses and I do not regret it for one second. Once he was down, there were people waiting to take his meat. They also took his tail to make jewelry, his bones to make other things, and did not waste a single part of him. I am grateful to be a part of something so good".

On her website, Rebecca Francis lists out other animals she has taken down with her hunting bow. Among them are squirrel, mule deer, whitetail deer and zebra.