‘For holding a wombat, thousands threatened my life’

A US influencer who was filmed taking a wild baby wombat away from its distressed mother in Australia has said she is “truly sorry” and received thousands of death threats over the incident.

Sam Jones, who calls herself an “outdoor enthusiast and hunter”, was filmed picking up the joey on the side of a road, while laughing and running over to a car, while the mother chases after them.

It sparked a massive backlash, with Australian PM Anthony Albanese challenging her to “take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there”.

In a lengthy statement on her Instagram page, Jones says she was trying to get the animals safely off the road.

She says, as can be seen in the video, that the mother runs off the road, but the baby does not, and Jones scoops it up. She says she ran across the road “not to rip the joey away from its mother, but from fear she might attack me”.

“The snap judgement I made in these moments was never from a place of harm or stealing a joey,” the statement says.

She emphasises that it was “not staged, nor was it done for entertainment”, and in her excitement of the moment, “acted too quickly and failed to provide necessary context to viewers online”.

In the second part of her statement, Jones launches a scathing attack on Australia’s animal culling laws, including wombats, kangaroos, horses, deer and pigs.

Australia has various culling laws and regulations that spark controversy and divide the nation.

Wombats, which are native to Australia, are a protected species, but permits can be obtained to cull them if deemed necessary.

The anger that rippled across Australia was so strong that Home Affairs minister Tony Burke said his department was reviewing whether it could revoke Jones’s visa. However, the BBC understands that she left the country of her own accord.

Jones, who also goes by the name Samantha Strable, has nearly 95,000 followers and describes herself as an “outdoor enthusiast and hunter” on her Instagram profile. She has since deleted the wombat post.