FACEBOOK•ABC NEWS Aryanna Gourdin is a 12-year-old hunter who proudly poses with her prizes

Aryanna Gourdin’s social media snapshots standing over the slaughtered creatures have put her in the crosshairs of angry animal lovers and disturbed conservationists. Her 'Braids and Bows' Facebook page is receiving an avalanche of comments from both critical wildlife enthusiasts and supportive hunters who have taken up battle lines after the youngster posted selfies draped over the dead African animals. Smiling at the downed body of zebra with a bow and arrows, she purrs: “One of my dream hunts for sure!!”

Another showing her holding up the head of slaughtered giraffe with a hunting rifle in the frame is captioned: “Good times in Africa with my dad…” Aryanna and her father Eli took their hunting trip to South Africa earlier this month and have returned to their Utah home facing a volley of fury and threats to their lives. The killing of the giraffe even incurred the wrath of one the world’s leading conservation organisations, the International Fund for Animal Welfare, who said: “It's sad any time that an imperilled animal like a giraffe is killed for fun.” Yet in a feisty defence on Good Morning America, the youngster fired back at critics of her hunting pursuits and the way she glorifies them on social media.

FACEBOOK The young hunter has defended her actions saying she 'will never stop'

She said in the GMA interview: “It's something I cherish and enjoy, and I want other people to see what I experienced.

I would never back down from hunting. I am a hunter...I'm never going to stop Aryanna Gourdin

“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.” The girl’s father also jumped to his daughter’s defence, explaining how the hunting farm had offered the giraffe to them because it was a problem animal. He said, explaining that the meat from the animals they killed was given to a nearby village and will feed 800 orphans over the next month: “They actually had an older giraffe that was eating up valuable resources other giraffes need to survive." The father and daughter have been going on hunting trips together for the past five years but this year the youngster’s Facebook postings made them targets, too. But without regrets on their part. Mr Gourdin said: “We're proud to be hunters, and we'll never apologise for being a hunter."

FACEBOOK Aryanna goes hunting with her father and has done since she was young

With one photograph on Aryanna’s Facebook page receiving 73,000 comments, some calling her “sick” and “animal hater”, many of America’s huge hunting community have jumped to her defence. One supporter said: “Let the haters hate! Hunt away Aryanna." At IFAW, the “negative energy” being directed towards Aryanna would be better reflected in tackling the far greater issue of trophy hunting and protecting imperiled creatures such as giraffes.

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Jeff Flocken, IFAW’s North American regional director, said: “It's sad any time that an imperilled animal like a giraffe is killed for fun, regardless of who does it. "Giraffes are in serious decline across Africa; it is estimated that their populations have dropped by 40 percent in the last 15 years. The last thing they need is to be killed for anyone's enjoyment. “All the negative on-line energy focused on this should not be directed at any individual, particularly a minor. We know that the problem is so much larger than any one of these isolated incidents.

FACEBOOK She shares her hunting snaps on her 'Braids and Bows' Facebook page