Ollie Williams, a former Love Island star, has responded to criticism after he was chastised for uploading photos of deer he had hunted and killed.
On the first season of Winter Love Island in 2020, Ollie was temporarily paired up with eventual winner Paige Turley, however he departed the island after only three days, explaining that he was still in love with his ex-girlfriend.
But, at the time, photographs of him smiling next to murdered animals sparked outrage, prompting over 200 complaints to Ofcom.
On Monday, Ollie, the director of Cornish Sports Agency, uploaded a photo of three dead deers with the comment, ‘A fantastic morning with @paulchilderley on the Chinese Water Deer.’
‘They are prolific breeders with a hell of an appetite for seedling crops!
‘5/6 for the Grand Slam, Sika to go!’
He also uploaded a photo of one of the deer’s expressions as he knelt beside them, adding, A brilliant, meat harvest, chiller filled. Wild, locally sourced, happy healthy meat. What more could you want?’
Nevertheless, after getting abuse on social media and from animal rights group PETA, who accused him of having a “cold heart,” Ollie released a video on Instagram defending himself.
In it, he declared that the animals he shot had ‘gone right into the food chain’.
‘The meat is healthy, happy, sustainable and net zero,’ he explained.
‘It is far better than anything you could buy from the supermarket.’
‘It has not suffered.’
He added: ‘All the things you eat like the chicken, beef and pork have gone through a fairly horrible and rigorous slaughtering system where they’ve been gassed, electrocuted, had throats slit and basically seen their buddies dying around them in quite mass intensive killing factories, whereas these deer haven’t had that.’
Instead, the deer had ‘simply landed in their natural surroundings with no concept what’s going on,’ according to the former reality star.
He also argued that people should be eating game since it was the ‘greatest possible thing for the ecosystem’.
Others made it obvious on his social media that they did not support his hunting pastime, with one person stating, ‘I just don’t agree with this.’
PETA Vice President Mimi Bekhechi also said in a statement to the Daily Mail that it took a ‘cold heart to enjoy traumatising, hurting, and killing animals who are minding their own business’.
‘The UK public objects to gratuitous violence, so it’s no surprise that Ollie Williams is in the firing line for his callous behaviour.
‘PETA urges him to retire his rifle and recognise that animals deserve care and protection, not to be hunted down and shot.’
Ollie has previously been accused of trophy hunting, which he has always denied, and has stated that he was involved in ‘conservation work’ in the past.
Nevertheless, soon after he was placed on Love Island, viewers launched a petition with over 40,000 signatures requesting that the show’s producers remove him from the lineup owing to photographs of him with dead animals.
Ollie is the heir of the Lanhydrock Estate in Cornwall, where his father Andrew is a Lord and his family is worth £15 million.
Love Island is streaming on ITVX.
