Tess Talley

Pluralist:

Tess Talley, an American trophy hunter who went viral in 2018 after posting a picture of a giraffe she’d killed, spoke out for the first time since the controversy in an interview with CBS aired this week.

The image, which showed Talley posing next to a dead giraffe she’d bagged during a trip to South Africa in 2017, sparked widespread backlash.

Talley spoke to “CBS This Morning” on Friday and revealed that the worldwide outcry hadn’t dulled her passion for hunting.

“It’s a hobby, it’s something that I love to do,” she said and explained that the 2017 kill was part of a conservation effort to manage the wildlife population in the area.

“He was delicious,” Talley told CBS News’ Adam Yamaguchi when he asked about the particular kill that made her one of the world’s most infamous hunters.

She also revealed that she’d made a gun case and decorative pillows out of the old black giraffe.

“I am proud to hunt. And I am proud of that giraffe,” Talley told a “CBS This Morning” studio panel.

Co-host Tony Dokoupil pressed her on the seeming “pleasure” and “joy” she got out of hunting.

Talley was unapologetic.

“You do what you love to do. It’s joy,” she said. “If you don’t love what you do, you’re not gonna continue to do it.”

“CBS This Morning” co-host Dana Jacobson alluded to previous comments Talley made, in which she said she felt “remorse” after killing an animal.

“If there’s remorse, why do it?” Jacobson asked.

“Everybody thinks that the easiest part is pulling the trigger. And it’s not,” Talley replied. “That’s the hardest part. But you gain so much respect, and so much appreciation for that animal because you know what that animal is going through. They are put here for us. We harvest them, we eat them.”

Talley said she was “surprised” by the reaction to the photo she posted to social media showing off her kill.

Members of the urban community of fashion tend to think that guilt-free meat is simply grown on supermarket shelves.