Allen Tarpley, an American hunter, is in the crosshairs of a media storm after posting photos of his children, ages 7 and 9 at the time of the hunt, while they casually pose with the dead lions they shot and killed.
“My 7-year-old with his first lion,” read the caption on the image that has since been removed.
The photos were posted online in July of 2014 and were resurfaced by the anti-hunting organization We Will Not Be Silenced About Hunters.
“Please don’t hate on the child, pity him,” the group wrote. “He is being raised this way.”
In one of the photos a child, it is not known whether the child is Tarpley’s, is seen casually leaning against a dead lion playing on a tablet.
“The fact that a child can casually lean against the corpse of this animal and play with technology is chilling,” said a spokeswoman for the anti-hunter group.
Tarpley has since deleted his Twitter account, but he has told the Daily Mail that groups like We Will Not Be Silenced About Hunters don’t understand.
“They don’t care about human beings and babies being slaughtered and body parts being sold for Planned Parenthood but they care about one animal,” he said. “There was no media hype about Planned Parenthood selling baby parts but one lion gets killed and everyone goes crazy.”
The family has reported that they no longer hunt due to fact that the hobby is too expensive.
