'It's conservation!' Cheerleader stokes controversy over hunting of rare species with typo-laden defense claiming that she is HELPING

Kendall Jones, 19, drew the ire of thousands with her Facebook photos showing her smiling alongside rare African beasts



She fired back Tuesday in a Facebook post invoking 26th American president Teddy Roosevelt



Jones has posted shots of herself posing with dead elephants, hippos and lions among others that she's killed across Africa

Jones claims her kills come after a 'fair chase,' but thousands are demanding that Facebook remove the posts

Jones is a cheerleader at Texas Tech and is gunning for a reality show about her African adventures



The teenaged Texas Tech cheerleader who created a social media firestorm with photos of the African big g ame she hunted has fired back at her online attackers.

In a typo-laden defense that invokes the safari-loving 26th U.S. president Teddy Roosevelt, Kendall Jones, 19, claims that killing rare rhinos and elephants actually helps to save them.

'This is a conservation effort to assure [sic] that they never do become extinct,' the teen from Cleburne, Texas posted to Facebook.

'This is a conservation effort!': 19-year-old Texas Tech cheerleader Kendall Jones is firing back at the critics who say her hunting safaris to Africa are just poaching expeditions disguised as conservations



Unfairly targeted? Kendall Jones, far right, loves Jesus, cheerleading, and hunting African big game

Facebook, of course, is where the controversy began. By Wednesday evening, 150,000 global animal lovers had signed a petition urging CEO Mark Zuckerberg to take down the photos in which Jones smiles proudly over the corpses of her prey she claims to be saving from extinction.



'[Roosevelt] was a hunter too, right? He killed the same species that hunters now chase today under a mound of anti-hunting pressure.



'Yet, how can it be possible that someone can love the earth, and take from the Earth in the name of conservation? For some folks, they'll never understand. For the rest of us...we were born that way. God Bless Teddy,' wrote Jones.

Jones' Facebook remains active, the photos that started the controversy have vanished.

Meanwhile, a Facebook account has now been created as part of Jones' defense called Support Kendall Jones.



'Support this teenage girl who was attacked for posting pictures of her game that she legally harvested while in Africa,' reads the page.

Conserving by killing? 19-year-old Texas cheerleader Kendall Jones really likes to kill rare animals in Africa. While she pays for her legal hunts, her critics says she's not the conservationist she claims to be

Big 5: Jones says her first kill was a rare African white rhino, part of her quest to bag the Big 5 African game animals (rhino, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard and lion)

Legal: The young hunter has many critics but also a lot of supporters who say what she's doing is fine, since she pays the governments of African countries to kill the animals

Jones claims photos of dead hippos, elephants, lions and other beasts on Facebook are a testament to her hunting skills and dedication to game preservation. But critics are appalled by the teen and are calling Kendall sick and depraved for killing the rare animals and boasting about it online. 'For the sake of all animals,' reads the petition against Jones as it implores animal lovers to sign, 'especially the animals in the African region... where hunters are going for fun just to kill an animal!' RELATED ARTICLES Previous

1

Next Astonishing footage shows jaguar stalking and ambushing a... Poor lion cub passes out after getting its head stuck inside... Share this article Share Jones, whose Facebook indicates she 'is looking to host a TV show in January 2015,' maintains she is doing what's best for the preserves, where there isn't always space for even threatened species like elephants or lions. 'Controlling the male lion population is important within large fenced areas like these,' Jones writes. 'Funds from a hunt like this goes partially to the government for permits but also to the farm owner as an incentive to keep and raise lions on their property.' Hungry: Jones defends her killing of elephants by saying their meat goes on to feed hundreds of thankful village families

Jones's photos show her posing with bagged zebras, hugging a dead leopard, and smiling beside elephants she's killed.

One particular photo, in which she's posing alongside a an extremely endangered rhinoceros, has her critics especially steaming, but the Texas Tech cheerleader says it was alive and well.

'The vet drew blood, took DNA samples, took body and head measurements, treated a leg injury and administered antibiotics. I felt very lucky to be part of such a great program and procedure that helps the White Rhino population through conservation,' she wrote.

However, Jones has in her quest to bag the Big 5 African game animals (lion, elephant, Cape buffalo, leopard, and White/Black rhinoceros) shot a white rhino, which number around 20,000.

'The first animal I ever shot was a White Rhino with a .416 Remington!!' the teen writes on her Facebook page.

Because of her enthusiasm for killing rare game and what they say is her dubious standing as a conservationist, some critics say Jones should be banned from hunting in Africa completely.

family pride: Jones first learned to love the hunt when she started following her father to Africa for his own hunts at age 9

'Harvest': 'Another harvest for today,' wrote Jones with this photo. 'White springbok, it's 1 of the 4 color shades of this animal! And let me tell you it's one of my favorite kinds of meat so far!'

A second petition, this one on change.org and originating from South Africa, is hoping to do just that.

'Kendall Jones is an American born hunter who has entered the continent and has been hunting African wildlife under the facade of conservation,' reads the petition.



It continues: 'She has publicly stated that she hopes to have a television hunting show and she is using endangered and helpless African animals as a stepping to further her popularity on social media platforms.'

Critics say the 19-year-old is not conservationist and is simply reaping the benefits of her Facebook photos with African animals to help get a television deal