American TV presenter posing with dead goats after hunt leads to 'urgent' question in Scottish parliament

Larysa Switlyk branded 'sickening' and 'truly abhorrent' for sharing images on social media

Larysa Switlyk is a US huntress (Screengrab/Youtube/Larysa Unleashed)

The outrage sparked by an American TV presenter who posted with dead goats after a hunt in Scotland will see the issue “urgently” raised in the Scottish parliament.

Larysa Switlyk, who describes herself as a “professional huntress” and is the host of Larysa Unleashed on Destination America & World Fishing Network, shared a picture of herself smiling behind the animal on the island of Islay.

The image was widely criticised online with more than 2,800 people commenting on the picture, with Twitter users calling Ms Switlyk “sickening” and “truly abhorrent”.

In Ms Switlyk’s tweet she said: “Beautiful wild goat here on the Island of Islay in Scotland. Such a fun hunt!! They live on the edge of the cliffs of the island and know how to hide well.

“Made a perfect 200 yard shot and dropped him with the gunwerks and nightforce-optics! (Good thing too because he could have ran off the cliff into the water). “

The other image shows a man posing behind a white goat, with the caption: “Congrats on Jason on his gold medal goat here in Scotland on Islay. A unique hunt.”

Mike Russell, the MSP for Argyll and Bute, the area where the incident took place, said he would be raising the issue with the Scottish environment secretary.

He tweeted: “As the local member of [Scottish Parliament] I am raising this as a matter of urgency with [Roseanna Cunningham] – if this is actually happening on #Islay, and laid on by some sort of tour company I would want to see it stopped immediately.”

Ms Switlyk has now said she will leave social media for two weeks after she received death threats.

She said she was "headed out on a bush plane for my next hunting adventure" and would avoid social media for a fortnight.

In a message on Instagram and Twitter on Wednesday night, Ms Switlyk said she was heading into the wild to connect back with nature, posting a picture of herself next to a small seaplane.

She wrote: "My ride has arrived - I'm headed out on a bush plane for my next hunting adventure and will be out of service for 2 weeks.

"Nothing better than disconnecting from this social media-driven world and connecting back with nature.

"Hopefully that will give enough time for all the ignorant people out there sending me death threats to get educated on hunting and conservation. FYI, I was in Scotland over a month ago..."

Sarah Moyes, campaigner for OneKind which campaigns against animal cruelty, said: “It’s utterly shocking to see these images of Larysa Switlyk and other hunters posing for photos with the wild animals they killed on a recent trip to Scotland.

“Yet again, instead of celebrating Scotland’s magnificent wildlife, we are seeing these beautiful animals exploited in the name of sport.

“This is not the kind of tourism we should be encouraging in Scotland, let alone allowing to happen in the 21st century.”

Agencies contributed to this report