Hunting Cheerleader Kendall Jones Poses With Dog, Baby Deer
Kendall Jones is fending off hunting critics with pictures of deer.
— -- The Texas cheerleader criticized for posing with endangered species she hunted in Africa on Facebook is now showing her softer side.
Kendall Jones, a cheerleader for Texas Tech, posted photos of herself this week posing with a dog and a baby deer in an effort to show her love for animals.
The college sophomore was the target of widespread criticism and a Facebook petition after she posted photos of herself posing with lions and cheetahs that she had killed while on big game hunting trips in Africa.
Cheerleader Fights Back Against Critics of Her Big Game Hunting
"I hope a lion eats you," Zane Blackwell wrote on her Facebook wall.
"You are a piece of garbage," Jackie Yaeger wrote.
Jones defended herself on her Facebook page by saying that she hunted the animals on safaris in Africa that, due to their high cost, actually help fund conservation efforts and protect the animals from poaching.
She declined comment to ABC News.
Today, she posted images of herself with a baby deer and yesterday posted one of herself with her chihuaha, Nemo, which she says is one of 40 dogs she's rescued.
"Out driving around the ranch today in the Ranger and look who we bumped into! Coyote was within 30 yards but we ran him off. Guess he wanted to celebrate #WhitetailWednesday too!!! #SupportKendall #HuntersCareToo," she wrote today on a post that included an image of Jones with a baby deer.
Jones says on her page that she has been hunting since she was a child with her father and first hunted in Africa in 2008 at age 13, where she shot a white rhino. She describes shooting an elephant, a buffalo, a lion, a leopard, and a hippo on subsequent African hunts.