Idaho nurse who hunts bears, deer and wolves says she receives death and rape threats for her Instagram posts
A nurse and huntress received several threats of rape and murder directed toward her baby daughter after she regularly posted pictures of wild animals she killed on social media. Kate Small became notorious for killing bears, deer, hogs and wolves in her hometown of Boise, Idaho, as well as in international big game destinations such as South Africa, the Daily Mail reported.
The 29-year-old is regularly seen on Instagram posing with dead carcasses of her trophy kills. Small spends days or weeks out in the field to hunt an animal as a backcountry hunter, and has garnered nearly 27,000 followers on Instagram.
Her largest kill so far was a black bear which was over 6 feet tall and weighed more than 350 lbs. However, the most difficult animal she hunted was a wolf, she said, owing to its sharp senses, speed and distance they can cover in a day.
Small usually hunts with her fiancé, Justin. She has been hunting for almost a decade and hopes to introduce her daughter to the sport as well. Furthermore, Small claims to hunt in an "ethical way". According to her, she kills animals only for food or "conservation" and to inspire more women to start hunting.
The huntress recently bragged about "dropping" a bear during a hunt in a video posted online, stressing all her hunts are within the confines of the law. "I like being able to know exactly where my food came from and not only that but working extremely hard to get it," Small said. "I like being able to provide organic, nutritious meals for my family. This lifestyle also lets me create everlasting memories with my friends and family."
"Even if I am unable to harvest an animal, memories made on a mountain, battling the elements and being pushed to your limit are invaluable. It's a true test of your inner strength and character," she added.
Small said she tries to "salvage" as much of the animal as possible, and that her family lives off the meat for the rest of the year. "Aside from wolves, as they carry parasites that are dangerous to eat and the meat is bad, I don't hunt anything I won't eat," she said. "I never take an animal for fun, it's for food or for conservation."
That said, Small has received thousands of death threats online as a result of her social media posts, with some targeting her one-year-old daughter as well as her pet dogs. "I have actually received thousands of death threats. People saying things I'd never wish on my worst enemy," she said. "I've had hundreds of people also threaten to rape and murder my one-year-old daughter. I recall one person saying, 'I'm going to put your baby in a blender and listen to her scream.'"
"I've also had people say they are going to murder my dogs, which just doesn't make any sense to me, you're mad that I killed an animal, so you're going to kill an animal," she added. According to her, hunting certain animals is "less cruel" than letting them die of natural causes.
"Those that I know who hunt, including myself, have an immense respect for animals and care deeply about them, that's another reason why we do what we do," she said. "Every year fish and game [authorities] comes out with new quotas specifying what and how many of each species in each particular area can and should be hunted. These quotas are based on scientific research to help keep the populations at their healthiest."
Small claimed hunting helps certain animals combat the spread of disease and the competition for food. She believes "mother nature" is crueler than hunting. "Have you ever seen an elk get half-eaten by wolves and suffer for hours while it slowly and painfully dies? Have you ever seen a mule deer gradually waste away and eventually die of starvation? I don't know about you, but to me, a single shot to the vitals sounds like a much better way to go," she concluded.