Kentucky woman responds to backlash over giraffe killing

A Kentucky woman attacked on social media for killing a giraffe on a 2017 hunt in Africa says she has received thousands of angry messages and death threats.

A photo of Tess Talley posing with a large giraffe went viral this week after the Twitter account of a site called Africa Digest posted two photos and called her a “white American savage”.

Media reports say that Ms Talley is from Johnson County in eastern Kentucky.

She issued a statement this week saying the giraffe was not rare and she was participating in what she called “conservation through game management”.

She says in the statement that “some of the most vile things have been directed at me and many other women hunters”.

Ms Talley has been criticised by celebrities such as Ricky Gervais and Debra Messing.