Love Island contestant attracts anti-hunting criticism

Love Island contestant Ollie Williams posted images of himself on social media with game shot during a past trip to Africa and has been criticised for trophy hunting. A petition has been put up on Change.org calling for his removal from the ITV 2 series and attracted over 35,000 signatures.

However the producers of Love Island have indicated that they won’t bow to the public on the issue. An insider spoke to MailOnline saying: “It is highly unlikely Ollie will be booted off the series. He’s part of the lineup and already filmed the first episode – bosses see no reason to kick him off.”

https://twitter.com/alienkking/status/1216073036815835136?s=20

https://twitter.com/LouiseXUnderhil/status/1217038445564043265

#ITV @LoveIsland please axe #olliewilliams this is an absolute disgrace ?? https://t.co/98T8HPfrfs

— Diane Watt (@dianewatt29) January 14, 2020

Trolling

The comments section of the particular Change.org petition attracted hundreds of very critical remarks, causing BASC to lobby Change.org successfully to have the comments section disabled.

Dr Conor O’Gorman, head of policy and campaigns at BASC, said: “Attacking an individual’s actions when all the facts are not clear is unacceptable and widens the divisions within any debate.

“The online abuse made towards Ollie Williams goes even further and is truly sickening.”

On the topic of trophy hunting, Dr O’Gorman said: “Undertaken in accordance with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) sustainable hunting guidelines, hunting plays a significant role in conservation.

“There are countless examples of species saved from local extinction through sustainable hunting.”

Contentious photographs

In one image on social media Ollie Williams can be seen standing over a dead eland with the caption: ‘Another happy client with his awesome eland bull! Enquire on the website today!’

The website referred to is ‘The Cornish Sporting Agency’ which is currently offline but in 2019 was promoting big game hunting. The agency is a registered company with Ollie as its chief officer.