New Zealander Sammi Lee has received death threats for hunting animals such as wild pigs, deer and ducks and posting pictures of herself with her kills online.
Today she was on Good Morning Britain to discuss why she hunts, telling hosts Adil and Kate Garraway that she got an “adrenaline rush” from hunting.
She told the ITV presenters: “Here in New Zealand, all the game that we hunt has been introduced. Without hunters we would be overrun with deer and pigs, everything.”
Sammi added: “Its cheaper for me to go up the hill and shoot a deer that me and my partner can live off for three months than go to supermarket and buy meat that I don’t know where it’s come from.”
The presenters went on to probe her on whether she believed she was “glorifying” killing and if that could send out a message to people that killing endangered animals was okay.
Speaking about lion hunting in Africa, Sammi said the beasts were “old” and “getting to the end of their lives”.
Adil was taken aback and interjected to say: “Hang on. Sammi can I just clarify, you are saying that you would shoot a lion?”
“No…” Sammi began before Adil continued: “Why are you defending it then if you wouldn’t shoot a lion? Why are you defending those who do?”
“You go out and you pay mega bucks to shoot one lion, that money is going back into those animals,” she insisted.
Adil replied: “But I don’t understand that logic at all.”
He continued: “That lion is member of a family.
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“You’re choosing to kill and for a lot of human beings that would be a real perverse thing to do.”
Kate went on to address the negative backlash Sammi had received online over her posts.
“You’ve had death threats tell us about that and why you still continue to post the images online,” Kate asked.
Sammi explained: “So I mean last night I had quite a few after the article was released. I’ve had people threatening to shoot my dogs or telling me to turn the shotgun on myself.
“I was born and raised the way I am now and I will always be this person.”
Adil went on to ask Sammi how she felt when the animals fell to the ground after being shot in the heart or head.
“Does it make you feel fantastic?” he questioned.
Sammi retorted: “I mean if you’ve walked three or fours hours up a hill and everything is aching…of course we’re going to be happy about it. We make sure the animals all good.”
A shocked Adil said: “How can an animal be all good? You’ve killed it, how is it good at that point?”
“By making sure it’s definitely dead,” she responded.
Adil hit back: “So earlier when you said it immediately dies that wasn’t right, you were wrong there. You’ve just admitted you have to check it’s dead. So it’s a very painful death for these animals?”
“No, it makes a decent hole in animal,” Sammi said. “There’s no way it’s going to be alive after a bullet’s gone through it.”
As the interview came to a close, Kate and Adil thanked Sammi for coming onto the show.
However, Adil then turned to Kate to say: “Its appalling, absolutely appalling. That’s my own view.”
Good Morning Britain airs weekdays at 6am on ITV.
