American huntress kills rare black giraffe, eats it and even makes a gun case out of its skin: 'He was delicious'
An American woman who was widely criticized after she shot and killed a giraffe in South Africa has said she has no regrets. Her comments come almost a year after she proudly posed alongside the dead animal and shared the photos on social media.
Tess Thompson Talley, 38, defended her love of hunting during an interview with CBS on Friday. "They [animals] are put there for us, we harvest them, we eat them!" she said at one point.
Talley was seen in a pre-packaged segment dressed in camouflage gear, killing a wildebeest on a wildlife ranch near her home in Odessa, Texas.
According to her, the black giraffe she had killed during her gaming trip to South Africa was "delicious".
The huntress then proceeded to flaunt the gun case she had made using the skin of the dead animal.
"This is a part of the black giraffe that I shot, something I could take around with me, and have on my hunts!" she stated during the segment, slinging the case around. "I also have decorative pillows made out of him, and everybody loves them."
Talley joined CBS This Morning live in the studios after the segment was aired, where a group of panelists, including Gayle King, were ready to grill her for her actions.
However, Talley told them her hunting trips were, in fact, beneficial to the animal kingdom.
"We are preserving... we are managing herds, we're managing numbers of wildlife," she insisted. "I am proud to be a hunter, and I'm proud to hunt, and I am proud of [killing] that giraffe," she later declared.
After her images posing with the giraffe went viral last year, news outlet Africa Digest branded Talley a 'savage' in an impassioned tweet. "White American savage who is partly a Neanderthal comes to Africa and shoots down a very rare black giraffe courtesy of South Africa stupidity," it read.
Furthermore, a string of celebrities called her out for her lack of compassion. Will and Grace actress Debra Messing described the hunter as a "disgusting, vile, amoral, heartless, selfish murderer."
"With joy in her black heart and a beaming smile, she lies next to the dead carcass of a *rare* black giraffe in South Africa. Giraffes are the epitome of gentle giants. They glide across the plains, like liquid; awe-inspiring creatures who spend their days eating leaves and caring for their young. How DARE she," Messing wrote in a post.
Addressing the backlash, Talley told CBS: "It got really bad, (people) spreading out addresses, showing up at my work, calling employer trying to get me fired."
Nonetheless, Talley was not discouraged and thanked her "amazing boss" for supporting her throughout the ordeal, adding she would it all again no matter what people think.