Idaho huntress Sabrina Corgatelli is ready to take on the haters who call her a “cold-hearted” killer for hunting animals including a giraffe and wildebeest. In a new interview on the heels of Walter J. Palmer‘s controversial killing of Cecil the Lion, Corgatelli is defending her kills as sport.
“Everything I’ve done here is legal, so how can you fault somebody because of their hobbies?” Corgatelli, who faced ire when posting shockingly graphic photos of her kills wrapped around her to Facebook, told Today‘s Carson Daly via FaceTime from South Africa on Monday, Aug. 3. (Beware, the talked-about photo of Corgatelli appears below. Do not read further if you do not wish to view it.)
Corgatelli said that she heard of Minnesota dentist Palmer‘s kill (that took place July 6 in a Zimbabwe national park) the day after she killed a giraffe in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. The difference between the two cases is that Corgatelli is said to have been hunting on ground that was declared legal, and the South African government was allegedly aware of her presence.
“To me it’s not just killing an animal, it’s the hunt,” the brazen huntress said Monday. “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.”
In her shocking Facebook recap posted on July 31, Corgatelli described killing the “amazing” giraffe as “a feeling I will never forget.”
Palmer, for his part, penned an apology note last week, arguing that his hunt was “legal and properly handled and conducted,” but he was unaware Cecil was a known international favorite. He allegedly paid $55,000 to hunt the lion, accompanied by guides Theo Bronkhorst and Honest Ndlovu. According to NBC News, the men could face poaching charges and, if found guilty, 10 years in jail.
“Hunting is a coward’s pastime,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said in a statement to Us Weekly. “If, as has been reported, this dentist and his guides lured Cecil out of the park with food so as to shoot him on private property, because shooting him in the park would have been illegal, he needs to be extradited, charged, and, preferably, hanged.”
