Melissa Bachman's Lion Hunting Photo Controversy

Background

On September 30th, 2013, Minnesota-based TV show presenter Melissa Bachman shared a photo of her smiling and posing with a dead lion via Facebook and Twitter^[1], adding "an incredible day hunting in South Africa! Stalked inside 60-yards on this beautiful male lion…what a hunt!"

Bachman's photo was initially met with positive feedback from her followers on Twitter, racking up nearly 500 retweets and 240 favorites, though the tone of the reception began to change rapidly on November 15th, when the British comedian Ricky Gervais retweeted Bachman's photo with a cleverly-phrased insult calling her a derogatory slur (shown below).

That same day, Elan Burman from Cape Town, South Africa, submitted a Change.org petition^[4] demanding the South African government to refuse entry Melissa Bachman. Within the first week, Burman's petition attracted more than 315,000 signatures. Also on November 14th, a Facebook community page^[14] titled "Stop Melissa Bachman" was launched with a message against animal-hunting as an outdoor leisure.

Melissa Bachman has made a career out of hunting wildlife, for pure sport. Her antics are captured extensively on her personal website: http://www.melissabachman.com/. She is an absolute contradiction to the culture of conservation, this country prides itself on. Her latest Facebook post features her with a lion she has just executed and murdered in our country.

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