A US influencer filmed taking a wild baby wombat from a tormented Australian mother, said she was “really sorry” and received thousands of death threats about the incident.
Sam Jones, who calls himself an “outdoor enthusiast and hunter,” was filmed picking up Joey on the side of the road.
It sparked a huge backlash, with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese challenging her to “take the baby crocodile from her mother and see how you can get there.”
In a lengthy statement on his Instagram page, Jones says he is trying to safely drop the animals off the road.
She said the mother was on the road, as can be seen in the video, but the baby wasn’t and Jones scooped it up. She says she ran across the road, “I might attack me out of fear, rather than pulling Joey away from her mother.”
“The snap decisions I made at these moments were not from where Joey was harmed or stolen,” the statement said.
She said the video was “not being performed or made for entertainment,” and in the excitement of the moment, “were acting too quickly and unable to provide the audience with the necessary context online.”
In the second part of her statement, Jones launched a scathing attack on the culling laws of Australian animals, including wombats, kangaroos, horses, deer and pigs.
Australia has a variety of screening laws and regulations that spark controversy and divide the country.
The Australian native wombat is a protected species, but you can get permission to cull if you think it is necessary.
The online petition in support of her deportation has received over 40,000 signatures. Home Minister Tony Burke said his department is considering whether Jones’ visa can be revoked. However, the BBC understands that she has left the country of her consent.
Even though she’s called Samantha Strable, Instagram has over 95,000 followers.
Parents warned that Jones’ “crowdish” behavior could have caused serious harm to the wombat.
The Wombat Protection Society said it was shocked to see Wombat Joey’s mismanagement in the obvious snatch of “loving social media.”
“[She] He then returned the vulnerable baby to the country roads – potentially putting him in danger of becoming a road kill,” he said in a statement, adding that it remains unknown if Joey had reunited with his mother.
“I caught a baby wombat,” Jones said in the video, but Joey could hear her hissing and struggling with her grip.
The man can hear a laugh: “Look at her mother, it’s chasing her!”
Her caption in the now-deleted post read, “My dream of having a wombat has been realized! The baby and mom are slowly returning to the bushes.”
“The baby was carefully restrained for a total of one minute before returning to mommy,” she responded to criticism by writing in the comment.
“They wandered back into the bushes together, completely unharmed.
Animal rights groups are criticizing Jones. People for the ethical treatment of animals, or PETA, described the video as “a content extracting wildlife,” urging people to “stop treating wildlife as props.”
