A Wyoming-based social media influencer set off a firestorm of outrage in Australia after a video surfaced reportedly showing her grabbing a baby wombat and running back toward her vehicle with it.
Samantha Strable, who sometimes goes by Sam Jones online, was roundly condemned by Aussies reacting to a video allegedly showing her snatching the wombat from in front of its mother.
Even the country’s prime minister, Anthony Albanese publicly blasted her, according to reports from Australian media.
"To take a baby wombat from its mother, and clearly causing distress from the mother, is just an outrage," Albanese was quoted as saying by Sky News.
There were widespread calls to kick her out of the country, and Australia’s Immigration Minister Tony Burke stated that Strable’s visa was under review following the incident.
Cowboy State Daily in 2023 ran a feature story on Strable, who was living in Pinedale at the time.
Cowboy State Daily received numerous emails from Australians, expressing anger over her perceived abuse of their country’s wildlife.
Strable messaged Cowboy State Daily, saying that she had been receiving death threats.
She noted that she had “an official press release statement” forthcoming, but it hadn’t been released by publication time for this story.
Aussies Love Their Wombats
Wittingly or not, the woman in the video crossed a line that she shouldn’t have, Yolandi Vermaak, founder of the Wombat Rescue in Australia told Cowboy State Daily.
“The reaction has been pretty extreme,” she said during a telephone interview. “I think she will be regretting doing that.”
In the video, the woman reported to be Strable is seen bending down to grab a baby wombat from along a roadside, with the animal’s mother just a few feet away.
An unidentified man with an Australian accent, who was apparently shooting the video can be heard laughing, along with the woman as she returns to their vehicle with the wombat dangling from her hands.
“I caught a baby wombat!” the woman declares.
A short while later, she can be heard saying, “OK, mom is right there, and she is pissed, let’s let him go,” before releasing the wombat.
It was the apparent flippant mistreatment of Australian wildlife that set people off, Vermaak said.
“It’s not gently, quietly saying, hey look, there’s a wombat,” but then leaving the animal alone, she said.
“It’s the laughing, it’s the disrespect,” she added.
She said that the way the animal is handled in the video, dangling with its lower half swinging back and forth as the woman holding it runs, could have injured the wombat.
Wombats Struggling
Australia has three species of wombats, Vermaak said. One is endangered, and another is threatened.
The species of wombat in the video isn’t either of those, but that doesn’t make the offense any less egregious, she said.
Wombats are under threat from “land clearing, car strikes and mange,” she said.
“There’s fires, floods and drought. There’s always something that’s putting pressure on them,” Vermaak said.
As for the wombat in the video, it could be at risk of being rejected by its mother after being handled by a human, she said. And the animal should also be checked for mange.
Vermaak said she doesn’t know where the video was taken or where the wombats shown it might be. But for the animals’ sake, she wants to find out.
“It’s a race against the clock now,” if the baby wombat was rejected by its mother and needs to be rescued, she said.
Vermaak invited the woman in the video to reach out to her and help her find the wombat.
“I would like to have a private conversation with her, only to find out the location. I don’t want to argue or judge,” she said.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
