Rosie O’Donnell has taken to Twitter
to defend a series of photos of her posing with a dead hammerhead
shark. O’Donnell claims the photos were taken years ago, before
hammerheads were on the endangered species list, but that hasn’t stopped animal activists from criticizing her.
The controversy began when the photos were uploaded to the web by
Mark Quartiano, a South Florida fisherman and guide who took O’Donnell
on a fishing trip. Quartiano, who goes by the moniker Mark the Shark, takes guests on chartered shark hunting trips.
The photos were uploaded to Quartiano’s Monster Celebrities gallery as ‘This Month’s Celebrity Angler.’ Other celebrities Quartiano has taken on excursions include Will Smith and Robert De Niro.
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O’Donnell explained the photos were taken on a family fishing trip
and that her daughter caught the hammerhead, tweeting, “it was caught –
reeled in by my 11 year old daughter – the hammerhead meat is used to
bail crab and lobster traps ..”
The TV personality
doesn’t think she has done anything wrong and wants activists to calm
down.
A Facebook page called, “Stop Rosie O’Donnell & Mark the Shark Hunter killing our oceans,”
is protesting O’Donnell’s actions but she is neither apologizing nor
backing down. In fact, O’Donnell has defended herself and Quartiano and
even lashed out at two users who criticized her fishing trip.
In response to critical tweets from @sith138 O’Donnell tweeted, “it was years ago asswipe – b4 they were on the endangered list.” To another user, @bigalosu,
she tweeted, “dear god albert – gonna block u – twisted really – i went
fishing with my family…we caught a shark – end of story.”
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