Anti-hunting B-list celebrity Ricky Gervais decided to attack a young hunter on Twitter, fueling thousands of hate-filled tweets directed at her.
Comedian Ricky Gervais is at it again, attacking a young hunter who doesn't have the power to fight back against Gervais and his army of robotic, unthinking followers.
Gervais tweeted in response to a photo of Aryanna Gourdin, age 13, standing over a giraffe she shot in South Africa, "Do you love me now daddy?" implying that Gourdin is a young person with "daddy issues" and that she only shot the animal for parental approval.
More than 73,000 comments were made on her Facebook photo following Gervais's tweet, many of them extremely negative and of the usual character.
Gourdin's life up to this point would indicate that she is a girl with a good head on her shoulders. She has a Facebook page wherein she has chronicled her many hunts and adventures over the course of her young life.
Fortunately, Aryanna Gourdin doesn't really give a hoot what Gervais thinks or says; she acts like she is completely confident and at ease with herself and her chosen activity.
Even though Gervais tweet inspired thousands of his fans to pile onto Gourdin with hate mail and death threats, Aryanna simply responded, "I would never back down from hunting. I am a hunter, and no matter what people say to me, I'm never going to stop."
Good for her!
But this incident of an anti-hunting celebrity saying something stupid about a hunter is nothing new. Gervais has earned part of his fame from doing this very sort of thing with hunters such as Rebecca Francis (who was also the target of Gervais's ridicule when she too posed with a giraffe she had shot).
This incident does, however, bring up an interesting topic: the tenor or message communicated by Gourdin's photograph. As you can see, in the photo Gourdin picked, she stands with one foot on the giraffe and rifle raised in the air in a victorious pose. This might legitimately be said to be disrespectful to the animal and worthy of criticism (although not of the childish kind of insult that Gervais made to a 12-year-old girl... "instruction" is better than insult).
Gourdin later admitted that the photo was in poor taste, when she said, "My last profile picture was very offensive to others and I have learned my lesson with that pose, I apologize." Put it down to a youthful indiscretion and the joy of the moment. We're glad she learned from the experience.
But compare that photo to the one below:
The difference in the message communicated is like night and day.
But again, she was only 12 years old at the time, and let's be realistic, at 12, we don't really have the greatest handle on our emotions or make the best decisions. One would have hoped, however, that there would have been an adult on the scene to make better judgments as to what is appropriate and what's not.
We simply ought not give anti-hunting fools like Gervais free ammunition with which to shoot us. Granted, anti-hunters like Gervais will criticize hunters and hunting no matter what, but when we, as hunters, do things that are also criticism-worthy by members of our own community, well, that doesn't help our cause a whole lot.
Let's hope that this proves to be a learning experience for everyone involved.
As for Aryanna Gourdin, keep hunting, young lady and don't let the haters get you down.
Like what you see here? You can read more great articles by David Smith at his facebook page, Stumpjack Outdoors.
NEXT: In a Major Blow to Anti-Hunting Organizations, USFWS Decides to Allow Some Imported Lion Trophies
