Outrage after Teen Mom OG star Sunny Johnston's daughter, 8, poses with bear she shot
'Teen Mom OG' star Sunny Johnston has drawn social media backlash after posting a photo of her eight-year-old daughter. The reason behind the uproar is that the child can be seen posing next to a fully grown black bear. According to her mother, the little girl killed the bear with just one shot.
Johnston had previously stirred controversy when her stepson Tripp fell sick and had to be hospitalized last year. Back then, there was chatter surrounding her bitter relationship with the boy's mother, Bristol Palin. Johnston's current husband Levi used to be engaged to the daughter of former Alaska governor, Sarah Palin. The relationship between Palin and Johnston has also been filled with subtle social media digs against each other, especially when Tripp was ill. Coming back from that however, Johnston's social media has been fairly calm until recently, when she posted the photo of her young daughter displaying her hunting kill.
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The photo shared on the 29-year-old reality TV mum's Instagram account sees her daughter, Breeze, in frame - smiling and holding up the dead animal's paw just to show its size. Johnston captioned the post: "Thank you for your life Mr. Black bear 🖤 🙏🏻 from Learning where food comes from, to getting it herself... My little 8 year old huntress got a great shot in all by herself after realizing she wasn’t ready, she stopped, took a deep breath and only then she regrouped and pulled the trigger." Beaming with pride, the mother of four added in the caption: "One and done ✔️ I’m very proud of her patience and persistence with this!🤗 although I would have cried as a kid and I’m low key scared of her now 🤣 #savage."
Johnston's followers however didn't agree with the post — neither the humour, not the hunting. Dubbing what she allegedly put her daughter through as a "traumatizing" experience, "horrified" followers were left at a loss for words at the photo. "My kids would be horrified. I don't even let them kill bugs. To each their own though," one commented. "When I was little my neighbor hunted and hung a deer from his tree and I've been traumatized ever since," wrote another.
Johnston however clapped back at her critics defending their hunting habits, comparing them to mainstream meat procuring practices. "I think any kid who isn't raised around it would be horrified," wrote the reality tv mom, adding: "Shoot, when adults see what happens to animals for them to eat them everyday, they're horrified too." She further explained: "The circle of life can be sad. What's great about hunting though is these animals live a great life up until this point and then they are thanked and truly appreciated," she claimed. Unlike animals raised in captivity, pumped full of steroids with nowhere to roam and then slaughtered with no appreciation at all."
Johnston's Instagram is sprinkled with photos of their family's hunting trips, posing and smiling next to the hunted dead animals. The reality star who ventured back to real estate, tried to clarify their family's hunting beliefs, further adding: "The meat is made into sausage or hot dogs and the hide and skull goes to the taxidermist so that she can have her own rug and they will bleach the skull for her to keep too." But social media wasn't convinced as many continued calling their sport "stupid". This is the second time Johnston has been embroiled in controversy since she was shaded with "subtlety" by Bristol Palin when Tripp fell sick last July.
The tension between Palin and Johnston came to light during a Q&A on Johnston's Instagram stories where she was asked by a follower how she dealt with "Bristol's shade on her Instagram." The then 28-year-old replied: "I've been sent screenshots and I've been asked this a lot. It's confusing because I was told updating friends about how he is doing wasn't the problem. I'm not getting into the medical side of things (for his privacy). But Levi, 30, and I cared for him through 97% of him being SO sick and it was so serious and scary. Just happy he's doing better now. That's ALL that matters to us!" she explained. The boy, who is now 12, had been hospitalized in July 2020 for viral meningitis while visiting his father Levi Johnston and Sunny, his stepmom, in Alaska. The Johnstons, who've been married since 2012, also share daughters Indy, 6, and one-year-old Delta.