An American influencer who grabbed a baby wombat from its mother has spoken out after her actions caused an uproar in Australia.
Sam Jones angered the nation when she intervened with nature by swiping a hissing baby wombat on the side of a road in a now-deleted video posted online.
Jones, a microinfluencer who appears to have gained thousands more followers since the incident, was seen picking up the animal while its distressed mother chased her.
Now, Jones, who left the country on Friday, has defended her actions, which even the Australian PM Anthony Albanese weighed in on.
Albanese told the tourist to try to pick up a baby crocodile from its mother and ‘see how you go there.’
Posting on her Instagram page on Friday, Jones said she has received death threats from ‘thousands,’ BBC News reported.
She said when she approached the wombat, the ‘joey did not move or run off,’ which made her ‘concerned it may have been sick or injured.’
Jones, who also goes by the name Samantha Strable, said she didn’t remove the animal and run ‘not to top the joey from its mother, but from fear she might attack me.’
She tried to ‘prevent these amazing animals from being hit,’ Jones said, adding that she is ‘truly sorry’ for the distress she has caused.
The incident was ‘never about social media or getting likes,’ she continued. ‘This was staged, nor was it done for entertainment. In my excitement, I acted too quickly and then failed to provide necessary context to viewers online.’
Her other post then goes into how wombats are managed in the Australian wild and hunting of other animals as she criticised the alleged ‘slaughter’ of millions of kangaroos and wallabies.
But, the Wombat Protection Society said it was shocked to see the ‘mishandling of a wombat joey in an apparent snatch for ‘social media likes.”
It remained unclear whether the baby animal was eventually reunited with its mother, according to BBC citing the group’s statement.
The Social Media Animal Cruelty Coalition found that in many videos where people appear to rescue them, animals had been harmed or put into dangerous situations.
In hundreds of online clips the group studied, cats, rabbits, goats, turtles, owls and hedgehogs were exploited for fake rescue videos, gaining more than 500,000,000 views.
While wombats are not an endangered species in Australia, law bans people from harming or taking wildlife.
SuzanneMilthorpe, the head of campaigns at World Animal Protection Australia, said previously when the footage emerged: ‘Wombats are not a photo prop or plaything.
‘It’s just unacceptable, and we’re glad she’s being called to account. Snatching a screaming baby wombat from their mother is not just appalling, it’s very possibly illegal under state or national laws.’
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