A woman who defiantly posted photographs of herself online posing with a dead giraffe and other animals she killed in South Africa has defended big-game trophy hunting, insisting hunters were not "cold-hearted killers".
More than 20,000 furious commentators have flooded the Facebook page of Sabrina Corgatelli, from Idaho in the US, who has continued posting photographs online from her hunting trip to South Africa despite the worldwide backlash following the death of Cecil the lion.
In one photograph, believed to have been taken in South Africa's iconic Kruger National Park, Ms Corgatelli is shown standing proudly with the dead giraffe's neck wrapping around her.
"Day #2 I got a amazing old Giraffe. Such a amazing animal!! I couldn't be any happier!! My emotion after getting him was a feeling I will never forget!!!," Ms Corgatelli boasted.
Thousands have now commented on the photograph, the vast majority condemning her and her actions. She has also received death threats, while some said they simply could not understand her reason for killing the animal.
"My emotion after seeing your proud photos is one of revulsion - your are an absolute disgrace to humankind - you should be ashamed of yourself," one person commented on the photograph.
Another said: "So you killed an amazing old animal and you feel good about it?? The emotion you should feel is called SHAME. How do yo sleep at night?"
Other photographs posted on Ms Corgantelli's Facebook page show her posing with dead warthog, wildebeest, impala and kudu, which she said was an animal at the top of her "want list".
"Yesterday was day 1 an amazing day!!! Got my beautiful beautiful Kudu!! It was my #1 want on my list and I got him on the first day!!! Loving it there!!," she wrote.
She is also photographed with her partner, Aaron Neilson, crouching beside a large dead crocodile.
"Aaron's 13 foot Crocodile. What a great Trophy and fun hunt!!," she wrote.
Ms Corgatelli, a university accountant who also runs a clothing company, defended her actions when interviewed by the Today show in the US.
She said she became aware of the international furore surrounding the death of Cecil the lion the day after she "got my giraffe", and has continued to post photos online since then.
"To me it's not just killing an animal, it's the hunt," she told Today from South Africa.
"There's a lot of personal things in my life that have happened recently that have added to that. I won't get into that or disclose those feelings. Everybody just thinks we're cold-hearted killers, and it's not that. There is a connection with the animal, and just because we hunt them doesn't mean we don't have a respect for them. Giraffes are very dangerous animals. They could hurt you seriously very quickly."
Some people who were outraged about her actions posted information online about her job, leading to questions about whether she would face repercussions at work.
"Everything I've done here is legal, so how can you fault somebody because of their hobbies?" Ms Corgatelli said. "How can an employer chastise you for something you do on your personal time that's legally done?"
US dentist Walter Palmer has gone silent in the wake of a global outcry after it emerged he had killed Cecil the lion in South Africa earlier this year.
Palmer is believed to have paid $US61,000 ($83,000) to shoot Cecil, who wore a GPS collar as part of an Oxford University study, from a hide on a private conservancy three kilometres from the border of Hwange National Park.
Wildlife authorities have since alleged that the hunter accompanying him and the landowner on whose property the hunt took place did not have the correct permits and that Palmer financed an "illegal hunt".
A second American hunter has been identified by the Zimbabwean authorities as having allegedly illegally killed a lion with a bow and arrow.
The man, named by Zimbabwe's national parks authority as Jan Seski, a 68-year-old doctor from Murrysville, Pennsylvania, is said to have killed the unidentified lion in April this year.
