A PHOTOGRAPH of over one hundred dead foxes that was posted to Vinnie Jones’s Twitter account earlier this month caused a social media storm.
The football player-turned-actor faced a barrage of complaints from animal rights activists who told Jones that he should “drop the idiot-thug act and put his strength into protecting – not destroying – those who cannot protect themselves from bullies”.
But in this case, the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels actor was not the bully.
It is suspected that Jones was the victim of a social media hack and Jones has vehemently denied having any knowledge of the photograph. It has not been confirmed where and when the photograph was taken, or who posted it on Twitter.
Jones was quick to make it clear that animal rights activists were unfairly charging false accusations against him. Speaking to the Daily Mail, Jones said: “I was shaking, I’d never seen the picture, and I’d never seen that many foxes. This is an attack on me”. According to his Twitter account, there are reports that the picture originated from a group known as the Aussie Feral Game Hunters back in 2012.
Further exposing how activists chose a heated reaction over proper research, was a statement made by the British Association for Shooting and Conservation. The Association said that it did not believe that the photo could have been a result of one night of fox control in the UK. “It would take a vast amount of land to sustain such a population of foxes,” it said.
The over-reactions to the false tweet do not appear to have dissuaded Jones from future hunting expeditions. He tweeted that “I’ll follow my country pursuits with the correct etiquette that have always been instilled in me”.
