us social media influencer slammed for illegally removing baby wombat from mother’s car
australia’s prime minister anthony albanese has joined the chorus of critics condemning the actions of us influencer sam jones, who was filmed taking a wild baby wombat away from its distressed mother. albanese suggested that jones try her luck with animals that “can actually fight back,” such as a baby crocodile, implying that her actions were reckless and irresponsible
the incident, which was captured on video, shows jones picking up the joey by the road and running across it to a car, while its mother ran after them. the man filming can be heard laughing, “look at the mother, it’s chasing after her!” the video has since been deleted, but not before it sparked widespread outrage and calls for jones’s deportatio
immigration officials are reviewing jones’s visa, and an online petition supporting her deportation has received over 10,500 signatures. home affairs minister tony burke stated that given the level of scrutiny jones will face if she ever applies for a visa again, he doubts she will even bothe
conservationists have condemned jones’s actions, saying that her behavior could have caused severe harm to the wombats. the wombat protection society expressed shock at the “mishandling of a wombat joey in an apparent snatch for ‘social media likes’
jones’s response to the criticism has been met with skepticism. she claimed that the baby was carefully held for one minute and then released back to its mother, and that they wandered back off into the bush together completely unharmed. however, experts believe that jones broke the law by taking native wildlife, which is prohibited in australia unless the animal is in need of help because its mother has die
the incident has sparked a wider conversation about the treatment of wildlife and the responsibility of social media influencers. as suzanne milthorpe, head of campaigns at world animal protection australia, said, “wombats are not a photo prop or plaything… snatching a screaming baby wombat from their mother is not just appalling, it’s very possibly illegal under state or national laws”. d.”.r.n.. etional laws”.
