Australian Survivor: Heroes vs Villains 2023’s Paige Donald has called out conservationists sending her “death threats”, before confirming that she plans to continue hunting in Australia and Africa.
The 26-year-old received significant backlash after her co-star Rogue Rubin called her out for being a “big game trophy hunter”, stating that “no hero kills for pleasure”.
**Content Warning: This article contains imagery and graphic descriptions of animal deaths and may be distressing to some readers.
Taking to her Instagram Story on February 6, Paige called out people sending her death threats. She justified her hunting because she gets paid for her work and most of the animals (in Australia, at least) are considered a “pest”.
“I just wanted to shut this down because you’re lucky I’ve got thick skin, mate. The amount of death threats and messages and disgusting comments I’ve gotten all over my social media is absolutely disgusting,” Paige said.
She continued: ‘Luckily, I have thick skin and it doesn’t really worry me. I’m kind of used to the comments and the messages from other people but this has gone above and beyond to a crazy level.
“So I really just think you need to pull your head in, mate. Worry about your own life, I’ll worry about mine.”
Survivor’s Paige Donald confirms she will return to Africa in the future and pay to hunt animals for sport
Of course, death threats and online harassment are never justified. However, Paige seemingly also ignored the constructive complaints that people had against her hunting for sport.
Paige boasted that she “went to Africa” nearly ten years ago, where she shot the antelope that sparked major controversy.
“You’re damn sure right that I will be going back one day. The money spent on the animal your shooting goes back into other conser – Um, into the animal and into the place to keep them safe,” she said, failing to pronounce ‘conservation’ multiple times.
Australian Survivor: Heroes vs Villain star Paige Donald attempts to justify hunting
She went on to try and justify hunting in Australia, hoping to tug on people’s heartstrings by claiming the “pests” she hunts for fun hurt baby animals.
“I live in a world with animals that are sick and need to be shot. I do hunt, yes. Pigs are a massive damage to the land, to calves [and] lambs. They’re a very aggressive pest and so are wild dogs,” Paige said.
“Wild dogs chew lambs to frigging pieces and calves to pieces while leaving them alive while eating their guts out.”
Babe, that’s survival. You’re doing it for sport.
It should also be noted that Paige has shared numerous videos of her pet dogs attacking and hurting feral pigs during hunts, rather than killing them quickly and humanely.
“I’ve seen some horrible things that dingos and wild dogs have done to cattle, sheep and native species because dingoes aren’t a native species. They came over on boats so you need to get your facts straight there”
The dingo is considered native wildlife under the Nature Conservation Act 1992. However, Australian landowners do have a legal responsibility to “control” wild dogs (including dingoes) on their land.
She finished her spiel by boasting that she gets “rewarded with a bounty for each dingo”.
Great, you so hunt for sport and for money!
Controversial Australian Survivor contestant Rogue Rubin slammed Paige Donald for hunting in Africa
It comes after Rogue uncovered an old photo of Paige posing with a hunting rifle beside a dead antelope and shared it to her Instagram Story, writing: “No HERO [sic] kills for pleasure,”
“No HERO [sic] kills for pleasure,” Rogue wrote on her Story.
In a secondary post, Rogue said she did “not want to be anywhere with proud big game trophy hunters”, off the back of her February 5 elimination.
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