( CNN ) Five years ago , Rebecca Francis posed for a photo while lying next to a dead giraffe . This week , she got threatened for her action . The trouble started Monday , when comedian Ricky Gervais tweeted the photo with a question . `` What must 've happened to you in your life to make you want to kill a beautiful animal & then lie next to it smiling ? '' Gervais wrote . In the past three days , his tweet has been retweeted almost 30,000 times . A number of people insulted and threatened Francis in response to the giraffe photo and others featuring her . On the website rebeccafrancis.com , there are photos of Francis with other animals , including a lion , which other Twitterers responded to . Francis , who has appeared on the NBC Sports Network outdoor lifestyle show `` Eye of the Hunter '' and was the subject of an interview with Hunting Life in late March , responded in a statement to HuntingLife.com on Tuesday , which was posted on its Facebook page . The death came about , she said , because she was asked by others on an African hunt to `` preserve '' him for the local people . `` ( The locals ) showed me this beautiful old bull giraffe that was wandering all alone . He had been kicked out of the herd by a younger and stronger bull . He was past his breeding years and very close to death , '' she said . `` They asked me if I would preserve this giraffe by providing all the locals with food and other means of survival . ... I chose to honor his life by providing others with his uses and I do not regret it for one second . ( The locals ) did not waste a single part of him . I am grateful to be a part of something so good . '' According to the Giraffe Conservation Foundation , there are about 80,000 giraffes in Africa , a decline of 60,000 in the past 15 years . On a website called rebeccafrancis.com , where the photo is posted , Francis describes herself as a longtime outdoors enthusiast and a fan of bow-hunting . `` I prefer bowhunting , and the animals I have taken with a bow include : a 10 1/2 ft. brown bear , black bear , shiras moose , alaskan moose , dall sheep , stone sheep , desert bighorn ram , rocky mountain bighorn ram , mule deer , whitetail deer , elk , mountain goat , antelope , arapawa ram , kudu , zebra , black wildebeest , giraffe , springbuck , blesbuck , lynx , badger , and squirrel , '' she writes . `` I have also taken many of the same species and more with a rifle . '' She has achieved the `` Full Curl of North American sheep '' with a bow , according to the Hunting Life interview , and hopes to achieve the `` Super 10 . '' The latter , according to liveoutdoors.com , `` entails the taking of one animal from the ten basic North American species : bears , cats , deer , elk , caribou , moose , bison/muskox , goat , antelope and sheep . '' Tom Opre , the producer and co-host of `` Eye of the Hunter , '' says she won the first season of `` Extreme Huntress , '' an online offshoot of `` Eye , '' and co-hosted a handful of `` Eye '' episodes . The rebeccafrancis.com website was apparently last updated in 2013 , though it makes mention of a 2015 TV series called `` Sheep Shape '' on the Sportsman Channel . CNN has reached out to Francis for comment .
Rebecca Francis ' photo with a giraffe was shared by Ricky Gervais . The caption reads: 'Giraffes are the most amazing creatures on earth. Francis , a hunter , said the giraffe was `` close to death '' and became food for locals .