A US influencer who posted a video of herself taking a baby wombat from its mother on social media has left Australia amid widespread condemnation. The influencer, Sam Jones, had nearly 100,000 followers and described herself as an “outdoor enthusiast and hunter” before making her account private and deleting the post.
The video showed Jones briefly snatching the baby wombat from the side of a road while its mother was distressed, but she returned it to the bush after just one minute. However, wildlife experts have deemed her act a “blatant disregard” for native wildlife, calling it “mishandling of a wombat joey in an apparent snatch for ‘social media likes'”.
The government had initially reviewed whether it could revoke Jones’s visa due to public outcry, but she left Australia on her own accord. Opposition leader Peter Dutton praised the decision, saying he thought it was a “cruel act”. A petition demanding Jones be deported from Australia garnered over 30,000 signatures. The Wombat Protection Society described the incident as “shocking”, while World Animal Protection Australia said posting such a video for “cheap content” was “unacceptable”.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0rz4e9185qo