An American influencer who 'stole' a baby wombat from its mother in Australia has hit out at the government.

The viral stunt, pulled off by Montana-based Sam Jones, was widely condemned by Australians - including Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who didn't hold back his disgust.

The scandal erupted when Jones, a self-described "outdoor enthusiast and hunter," uploaded a video of herself grinning at the camera while clutching a visibly terrified wombat joey.

"I caught a baby wombat!" she declared, while the wild animal hissed in distress, a clear warning sign to let it go.

The situation quickly took a turn when Jones acknowledged the mother’s presence nearby.

"OK, mom is right there... and she is p***ed. Alright, let's let him go."

Despite her claim that she only picked up the joey because she feared it was sick, the lighthearted tone of the video and the fact that she ran away with the animal left many furious.

The video was deleted, but the damage was done. The backlash in Australia was swift and brutal, with top politicians calling for legal consequences.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese slammed the stunt as "an outrage", sarcastically suggesting that Jones try her antics on an animal that could fight back.

"Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there. Take another animal that can actually fight back rather than stealing a baby wombat from its mother," he said.

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke hinted that Jones could face deportation, stating: "I can’t wait for Australia to see the back of this individual, I don’t expect she will return."

However, before any action could be taken, Jones left Australia voluntarily.

After her departure, Burke twisted the knife, telling The Daily Mail: "There's never been a better day to be a baby wombat in Australia."

Once safely out of Australia, Jones issued a two-minute video statement and a three-page Instagram post, addressing the controversy - but instead of offering a straightforward apology, she went on the offensive.

"I want to begin by taking responsibility for my actions. What I did was an incredible mistake, and there hasn’t been a moment I haven’t regretted it," she began.

But then, she flipped the narrative, accusing the Australian government of hypocrisy.

"Australia, the same government that is calling for my head, is the one that spends millions of your tax dollars to mass slaughter native Australian animals, as well as the Snowy River and Kosciuszko brumbies, wild pigs, and numerous deer species, many of whose corpses are left to rot."

She went on to claim that thousands of wombats are legally killed each year under government-issued permits, adding: "Thousands each year are shot, poisoned to suffer, and trapped legally. Landowners rip up wombat burrows with heavy machinery, poison them with fumigation, and shoot them whenever they can."

Jones also called out helicopter cull programs, where wild horses, deer, and pigs are shot from above, their carcasses left to decompose.

Despite widespread expectations that she would apologize and move on, Jones doubled down, directly challenging Prime Minister Albanese:

"Your Snowy River and Kosciuszko National Park brumbys are being slaughtered by the thousands on your dime - speak to your Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about that."

She concluded by urging Australians to look at the bigger picture rather than vilify her.

"While the Prime Minister wishes harm on me for picking up a wombat, I implore you to take a good, hard look at what is currently being done in Australia surrounding the real issues it faces…" she said.

"Then, decide for yourself if I, a person who certainly makes mistakes, am really your villain."

Featured image credit: keiichihiki / Getty

An American influencer who stole a baby wombat from its mother has shared a lengthy statement about why she did it.

The scandal erupted after Sam Jones shared a video of herself grabbing a baby wombat from the side of the road while its panicked mother frantically chased after her, per BBC News.

The influencer grabbed a baby wombat. Credit: Tommy Chan / 500px / Getty

As she grinned at the camera, holding the visibly distressed joey, she declared: "I caught a baby wombat!"

However, the wild animal hissed in distress, a clear warning sign that it was terrified.

Moments later, Jones released the joey, acknowledging: “OK, mom is right there...and she is p***ed. Alright, let's let him go."

While Jones later claimed she only picked the baby up because she feared it was sick, the video’s lighthearted tone and the fact that she ran with the wombat in hand immediately triggered outrage across Australia.

Australian politicians did not hold back in their condemnation of the influencer.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the act an “outrage”, sarcastically suggesting that Jones try her stunt with a more dangerous animal: “Take a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there. Take another animal that can actually fight back rather than stealing a baby wombat from its mother.”

Meanwhile, Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said his department was investigating whether Jones had violated biosecurity and animal welfare laws, hinting at possible deportation.

"Either way, given the level of scrutiny that will happen if she ever applies for a visa again, I’ll be surprised if she even bothers.

I can't wait for Australia to see the back of this individual, I don't expect she will return."

However, before the government could act, Jones left Australia of her own accord.

Following her departure, Burke took a final dig at the influencer, telling the Daily Mail: “There's never been a better day to be a baby wombat in Australia.”

After fleeing the country, Jones issued a three-page statement on Instagram, defending her actions and criticizing the Australian government.

She insisted that she only intervened because she was worried for the animals' safety, writing: “I was concerned it may have been sick or injured and made a snap judgment to pick up the joey and see if this was the case.

I ran, not to rip the joey away from its mother, but from fear she might attack me. The snap judgment I made in these moments was never from a place of harm or stealing a joey.”

Jones claimed she immediately returned the baby to its mother and watched them walk away together.

She also admitted that she could have handled the situation better, saying: “I have done a great deal of reflection on this situation and have realised that I did not handle this situation as best as I should have.”

However, she firmly rejected accusations that the stunt was done for social media clout, stating: “This was never about social media or getting likes. This was not staged, nor was it done for entertainment.”

While many expected Jones to issue an apology and move on, she instead launched an attack on Australia’s own treatment of wildlife - claiming that the government sanctions the killing of wombats and other animals while turning her into a scapegoat.

She wrote: “Thousands each year are shot, poisoned to suffer, and trapped legally.

Landowners rip up wombat burrows with heavy machinery, poison them with fumigation, and shoot them whenever they can.”

Jones also accused the Australian government of spending taxpayer money on helicopter hunts to kill wild horses, deer, and pigs, leaving animal carcasses to rot on public lands.

She even challenged Prime Minister Albanese directly, saying: “Your Snowy River and Kosciuszko National Park brumbys are being slaughtered by the thousands on your dime - speak to your Prime Minister Anthony Albanese about that.”

Jones concluded her statement by urging Australians to reexamine their country’s real issues, stating: “While the Prime Minister wishes harm on me for picking up a wombat, I implore you to take a good, hard look at what is currently being done in Australia surrounding the real issues it faces…

"Then, decide for yourself if I, a person who certainly makes mistakes, am really your villain.”

Featured image credit: keiichihiki / Getty

A woman in Australia has taken to social media to share the moment she went one-on-one with a giant furry spider in her home.

In a video that screams of "NOPE", TikTok user @tracelovescake can be seen attempting to maneuver a beast of a spider into a plastic box after discovering the arachnid in her home.

The start of the video opens with the words: "The joys of living in Australia", before @tracelovescake reveals her plan to capture the eight-legged invader.

She captioned the post: "Caught it so my kids and husband could see it [...] Strayaaaa!"

In all honesty, if my mom showed me this spider, I would have packed my bags and gone to live with my dad.

The video then shows the TikToker attempting to coerce the spider - which has set up camp on the back of her door - into a clear container with a broom. Steve Irwin would be proud, I'm sure.

The video has since been viewed over 47,000 times, with people in the comments section thanking the mom for not killing the spider.

And although there was a lot of disagreement in the comments section about what species the spider was, some people were more concerned with sharing how they would have dealt with the situation.

"Damn - I would have threw myself out of the house and onto the road," one person wrote.

Another added: "Burn it dowwwwwn! The whole house. Actually, burn the whole neighborhood to be safe."

In a follow-up video (below), @tracelovescake revealed that she is yet to throw the darn spider out of her house, and instead appears to be keeping the minibeast as a pet.

Replying to a comment, the mom revealed that the family are "fascinated" by the arachnid, and although they won't be keeping it forever, they have made sure it is fed and watered before releasing it back into the wild.

And this, ladies and gentleman, is reason 4,538 why I'll never visit Australia.

Featured image credit: Pixabay/Pexels

There's nothing the internet likes more than a weird video of an animal. At times it feels like it's what social media was made for. Maybe it's a clip of a fat dog trying to climb a flight of stairs, or a really long cat, or something equally unusual. Whatever it is, you can guarantee that people will sit up and take an interest in it. And it doesn't have to be a common or domesticated animal either: people have managed to make memes out of creepy-crawly bugs, slimy sea creatures from the ocean floor, and wild and ravenous beasts.

It seems as though even the humble marsupials of the Australian outback aren't immune to becoming internet celebrities either. If you want an example then look no further than the case of Roger the kangaroo, an incredibly ripped specimen of his species who took the internet by storm way back in 2015, after a picture of him flexing his gigantic biceps emerged on social media. Unfortunately for his many fans, the ridiculously swole Roger passed away back in 2018 at the ripe old age of 12 (which is pretty old in roo years).

However, fans of Roger the bodybuilding kangaroo can now rejoice: it seems as though Roger managed to father a son before he died, and now this Kangaroo, who goes by the name of Brandon, is now just as buff as his daddy. Tahnee Passmore-Barnes, who runs The Kangaroo Sanctuary in Alice Springs, Australia with her husband Chris 'Brolga' Barnes, says that the muscular Brandon is already following in his father's footsteps.

In a recent interview, Tahnee stated: "It's not unusual for mothers to let joeys of that age in their pouch, but Brandon is already very solid.  Indi's a very good mum and she loves Brandon a lot, but it's safe to say he's going to be a big boy soon. His dad had a huge following and we got messages of grief from fans all over the world when he passed away. We keep about 55 roos here who are rescued, rehabilitated and released back into the wild if they can. Indi and Brandon will probably stay on in the sanctuary. We've seen a lot of joeys grow up here over the years and looking after them always melts my heart."

Roger was found by the sanctuary as a joey after his mother was killed in a car accident before his impressive physique earned him thousands of fans. Why is this kangaroo so muscular you ask? Well, it all comes down to mating. In the wild, kangaroo males will often fight and box each other in order to prove themselves most dominant to females. This means that only the strongest roos earn the right to procreate.

A mom has responded to critics after revealing that she chose to keep her family's dog after it bit her daughter's face.

As reported by the Daily Mail, mom and influencer Nadezhda Dramaretskaia - who also goes by Klara Tsetkin on TikTok - has recently been faced with a torrent of backlash after revealing that she chose to keep the family's cocker spaniel after it left her young daughter requiring stitches in her face.

However, despite many comments on her videos now branded Klara a "bad mom", she has added further clarity to her story in a series of follow-up videos.

The criticism erupted after Klara revealed that she had decided not to have Bart the dog removed from the family home or put down after he injured her three-year-old daughter, Milana.

"After 10 days of reflection, we came to the conclusion that we all make mistakes in this life," Klara wrote in a now-deleted TikTok video - which also showed Milana's bruised face with multiple stitches in her left cheek. However, rather than hear out the mom's reasoning, many social media users were apparently left so uncomfortable by the child's injuries, that they bombarded Klara's comments sections with criticism.

On her most recent video, one person writes: "The girl will most certainly have PTSD from what happened and is expected to continue living with the dog that attacked her?"

A second simply added: "You should be ashamed!"

But the mom revealed in a follow-up post that her dog "never attacked" her daughter like many people have incorrectly assumed.

Instead, writing in a text overly, Klara explains that Bart had become "very sick" and was attempted to rest under the bed. "His hind legs gave out and he couldn't crawl away," she writes.

The mom then explained that despite trying to explain to her then-three-year-old daughter that Bart needed to be left alone to rest, "she began to touch him even more, sit on him, and climb [onto his face] and hurt him."

As a result, Bart bit Milana on the face.

Klara also added in another video that she has filed a police report against those sending her "death wishes" and "many messages threatening to take her children away".

The mom has also proudly shown off her daughter's recovery from her injuries, and it looks like Milana has made a wonderful recovery:

The family has also launched a GoFundMe for anyone wishing to help with the child's recovery and fund scar resurfacing treatments.

After sharing the full story behind her daughter's injuries, more and more social media users have voiced their support for the mom's decision to keep Bart.

"You are a good person, I'm afraid of the people who want to kill animal only because one mistake and because it was sick," one person commented.

A second added: "Your attitude of continuing with the dog was right, do not pay attention to comments from mean and ignorant people."

"You are not a bad mom," one person added.

While another TikToker wrote: "No one knows the situation better [than] you. The people hating/judging have nothing better to do with to their lives. Ignore strangers' opinions!"

Featured image credit: Bernard Golden / Alamy