Former NFL quarterback Jay Cutler is taking heat after posting Instagram photos of himself with a sable antelope he killed on a recent South African hunt. The 12-season pro shared the image with a simple caption: “Kicked off the Africa hunt with a beauty. Sable down.” Now he’s in the crosshairs of online outrage, which is being fueled by misinformation online and in the mainstream media.
The backlash came fast. Armchair critics lit up Cutler’s feed with the usual anti-hunting outrage, calling the hunt “cruelty dressed up as sport” and accusing him of shooting a defenseless animal that “had zero idea he was a threat.”
“Pretty sad that you are proud to have taken down this beautiful animal. Paying big bucks to have someone find you a large, beautiful animal that you can shoot at close range is not hunting,” wrote one commenter.
Unfortunately, a lot of the hate has been fueled by inaccurate information circulating online and in some mainstream media outlets which have accused Cutler of killing an endangered species. (PennLive went so far as to call the animal “critically endangered.) But the antelope he shot in South Africa is actually a common sable, which is not endangered and is listed as a species of Least Concern by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. It was not, as some have claimed, a giant sable. This rare subspecies is critically endangered, but it can only found in a small section of central Angola, which doesn’t even border South Africa.
Hunts like Cutler’s are a key part of conservation funding in many African countries. The hunting industry there generates millions of dollars each year, with large portions of that money going toward habitat preservation and anti-poaching efforts. Cutler’s hunt, no matter how controversial, helped fund the very system that protects the animals he hunted.
Read Next: Why Hunting Africa Has Nothing To Do With Trophy Hunting
But none of that matters in the court of social media, where clever digs and funny quips tend to carry more weight than facts. Cutler hasn’t apologized or backed down. If anything, he doubled down — posting more photos and a video from the hunt.
“Another great day,” Cutler wrote in the caption.
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