Photographer posts Glenn McGrath's African hunting photos and receives death threats from hunters
A wildlife photographer, Christopher Rimmer, based in Melbourne Australian shared several photographs on his Facebook page of Australian cricket legend Glenn McGrath posing with a gun beside dead bodies of hunted animals. The images have gone viral in the Social Media after which the photographer started receiving countelss death threats from varous hunters in Australia.
Rimmer, originally from South Africa, claimed that he received those photos from a friend of his in South Africa:
“There’s no greater crime in Australia than exposing the shortcomings of a sportsman. A friend of mine sent the photographs over saying that he thought that it was a famous cricket player. I was very suspicious of the photographs at first and I put them into my big editing suite to check if they had been photo-shopped.”
Later, he went of to say that he received around 600 personal messages threatening to harm or murder him:
'I knew given what I do and the people that follow me that I thought there would be a strong reaction but I never imagined it would be as intense as its been,' Rimmer revealed.
'Some of the language employed from people that are pro-wildlife has been pretty crazy really,' he said, adding that he didn't know whether the hunters or animal liberators had been worse.”
He said he was yet to contact police with the death threats, as he did not believe they posed a genuine threat.
Rimmer finally said that he admired McGrath and his work with charity, he found the photos to be ‘disgusting’ and said money raised through hunting in Zimbabwe was not actually supporting conservation efforts.
"I think it is in the public interest for people to see that (he has) other interests besides cricket," he said.
"Personally I find the killing of animals for pleasure repugnant."
McGrath, immediately took to socal media website Twitter to apologize on the issue and the images of him posing with the hunted animals. He admitted that he particiated in a hunting Safari in Zimbabwe in 2008 and said that it was ‘legal (the hunting safari) but in hindsight highly inappropriate’.
The Former Australian bowler lost his wife in the same year following a long fight with breat cancer for which he said: “It was an extremely difficult time in my life and looking back I deeply regret being involved.”
Please see my response below pic.twitter.com/GnnrSoPxzY
— Glenn McGrath (@glennmcgrath11) February 21, 2015
Later on, Australian Test player Brett Lee was also dragged into the Glenn McGrath hunting controversy after an image of the pair posing posing next to a dead deer emerged.
