A US hunting swayr who caengaged outrage in Australia after grabbing a baby wombat from its mother says she is sorry for the incident but was only trying to secure its protectedty by removing it from a road.
Sam Jones left the country on Friday morning after the home afimfragmentarys minister, Tony Burke, said immigration authorities were checking if she had baccomplished the conditions of her visa.
Early on Saturday morning, she posted a 900-word statement on her Instagram account, claiming she had been subject to thousands of death dangers, and asking the outrage in a country whose rulement “permits and allows the killing of wombats”.
It is an offence to harm a wombat in Australia unless a allow is geted from the rulement.
She also railed agetst the ending of kangaroos and brumbies.
Jones said she was “inanxiously troubleed” when she set up the wombats on the road, and stopped to secure they were not hit by a car.
When she walked up to the baby and it did not transfer, she thought it may have been unwell or injured, so determined to pick up the wombat to check.
“I ran, not to rip the joey away from its mother, but from trouble she might strike me. The snap appraisement I made in these moments was never from a place of harm or stealing a joey.
“While I was unbelievably excited to see such an amazing animal, I seeed it over speedyly and instantly returned it to its mother. I secured that the mother and joey did reunite, went off together, and that they got off the road.
“I have done a wonderful deal of echoion on this situation and have authenticized that I did not regulate this situation as best as I should have … I have lgeted from this situation, and am truly sorry for the trouble I have caengaged.”
She insisted that the incident had not srecommend been confected for satisfyed.
“I want to create it absolutely evident that this was never about social media or getting enjoys.
“This was not staged, nor was it done for delightment. In my excitement and trouble, I acted too speedyly and then fall shorted to supply vital context to seeers online.”
Burke, who is also the immigration minister, said on Thursday that he couldn’t “postpone to see the back of this individual” and authorities were “laboring thraw the conditions” on Jones’s visa to determine “whether immigration law has been baccomplished”.
The Australian prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said Jones’s actions were “an outrage” and recommended she should try to “consent a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there”.
RSCPA Australia said the footage showed a “blatant disponder” for native untamedlife and the trouble to the joey and the mother caengaged by the “callous act” was evident.
