American blogger Sam Jones, whose behavior with a baby wombat in Australia sparked public outrage, apologized for the incident and wrote that she only wanted to get the baby away from the road, not from its mother.
She wrote about this on Instagram.
Sam Jones was vacationing in Australia and one day posted a video showing her catching a baby wombat while it was walking with its mother. The footage shows Jones running towards a car with the baby wombat in her arms, while the baby hisses and tries to escape. The mother animal runs after the blogger, but she continues to hide from her and does not let the baby down.
After that, Sam Jones left the country, and Australian Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said that immigration authorities were checking whether she had violated the conditions of her visa.
In an Instagram post, the blogger claims that she has received thousands of death threats and questions such criticism of herself in a country whose government "allows the slaughter of wombats".
Jones said she was "extremely concerned" when she saw the wombats on the road and stopped to make sure they hadnʼt been hit by a car. The baby, she said, wasnʼt moving, so she thought it was injured and picked it up.
"I ran not to tear the cub from its mother, but out of fear that she would attack me," the woman wrote.
And she insisted that the incident was not simply fabricated for content.
- There are three species of wombat in Australia, two of which are endangered. Experts say the baby the blogger caught is a common wombat, also known as a naked-nosed wombat, which is not endangered. However, baby wombats form strong bonds with their mothers, and any separation can be distressing and harmful.
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