12-Year-Old Girl Faces Online Backlash Over Hunting Photos
 

A 12-year-old girl who likes to hunt big game with her father sparked an online firestorm after posting photos of herself online posing with a giraffe and a zebra that she killed with the help of her dad.
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Aryanna Gourdin and her father Eli took the trip from Utah to South Africa last week. Gourdin told ABC News she posted the photo on Facebook of her posing next to the dead zebra with a bow and arrow and the caption, "One of my dream hunts for sure," to share the experience.

"It's something I cherish and enjoy and I want other people to see what I experienced," she said in an interview with "Good Morning America."

The trip was one of many the pair have taken over the past five years, but her Facebook postings quickly made her a topic of heated discussion. One photo received over 73,000 comments, with some users are calling her "sick" and an "animal hater." Supporters posted encouraging messages, including "Let the haters hate! Hunt away Aryanna."

In a post on Tuesday, Gourdin acknowledged the uproar. "My last profile picture was very offensive to others and I have learned my lesson with that pose, [sic] I apologize."

Some of the more extreme comments went so far as threatening Gourdin and her father's life.

"We're proud to be hunters and we'll never apologize for being a hunter," Gourdin's dad Eli said.

Eli maintains that the hunting farm the Gourdin's visited offered the giraffe to for them to hunt because it was a problem animal. "They actually had an older giraffe that was eating up valuable resources other giraffes need to survive," he said.

He also said that the meat from the animals they killed was donated to a local village and will feed 800 orphans over the next month.

This is one of several recent instances in which hunters have faced vehement criticism online. Last July a Minnesota dentist named Walter Palmer created international headlines after posting photos online of a lion known as Cecil that he had killed in Zimbabwe.

Despite the controversy, Aryanna said she doesn't plan to give up one of her favorite activities.

"I would never back down from hunting," she said. "I am a hunter and no matter what people say to me, I'm never going to stop."

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#GLM :thumbsup

First, her father is a fucking asshole.

Next, I hope the backlash teachers her that what she's doing is wrong.

A giraffe and a fucking zebra...wow such vicious animals...get the fuck out of here you redneck savage hillbillies and your' "big game" trophies

The meat was not wasted. Feeding 800 orphans for a month I give them a pass

:1orglaugh

I used to go hunting when I was younger, never occurred to brag about a kill with photos.

Only time I took pics of a kill was after fishing in a stream all day and catching 8 fish. It started pouring down torrential rain and I hitched up all the fish to my bicycle and started the 6 mile trek back home. By the time I got home I'd lost all the fish but one. I was proud of that.

Couldn't agree more. She needed something to open her eyes to the world outside of her inbred family circle.

They always say this exact same shit, no matter what. If they kill a lion and get shamed for it they'll make this exact same claim. How many times do I have to see it before I'm allowed to call it bullshit?

Fuck all those "hunters".

Someone should hunt the fuck them down and see how they like it...

Fuck you and your ignorant bullshit. Animals are here to be eaten.

yeah she went to carls jr right after the photo :disgust

Strange no pics of 800 orphans being fed, that's something to be proud of and taking pics to memorialize, but they didn't :2 cents:

Since you are such a brainiac, what do YOU think was done with the meat?

I didn't say they lied about the meat.

I said "Strange no pics of 800 orphans being fed, that's something to be proud of and taking pics to memorialize"

As in, their values are fucked up. I'd have pics of the meat being distributed/eaten , not of me sitting on the dead carcass right after the kill. You get me?

I get that you are a judgemental idiot.

Well at least spell judgmental correctly if you're gonna be judgmental of me, it makes you look less like of an idiot :2 cents:

So, brainiac, is it your contention judgemental isn't an alternative spelling of judgmental?

You are wrong again

I'm sure you call your trailer and estate too, but that doesn't make it so bro :winkwink:

You probably spell blond, blonde, too just to be fancy with your extra E's

With any luck both she and her father will both be killed in an armed robbery so she can experience life full circle and feel a bullet enter her body and her life fade away...

It's funny how the city folk don't understand hunting. While I can agree I don't condone trophy hunting and would never kill an animal that I could not eat, I am an avid hunter and have been feeding my family good organic meat for many years.

I am sure 95% of you eat Beef and other meats. These animals are born in captivity, walk around in their own shit and piss all day, pumped full of all kinds of growth hormones and shit, processed in the factory with other shit, and many die a horrible death. Yet you have no problem supporting that when you purchase your meats at the store each week.

There is nothing wrong with an ethical hunter who ensures they make a clean kill shot with little to no suffering from the animal and utilizes every part of that animal that they can. How did our ancestors eat? By hunting, gathering, and farming.

To each their own I guess. I just find it comical that the tree huggers shame hunters, even the ethical ones, but support the slaughter and harsh treatment of the animals that provide meat to their dinner table.

:2 cents:

Disgusting!!! :disgust

More blood for the blood god

:thumbsup

you stoned??

Well speaking of eating animals. I have been to one Southeast Asian country once and they actually kill and feast out dog meat over there.
Something that Im not fond of.