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Ricky Gervais Mocks Texan Injured Following Attempted Armadillo Shooting

By Tonya Smith
Published on: 07:16 PST, Aug 1, 2015

Animal lover Ricky Gervais took to Twitter today to mock a Texas man who injured himself when he tried to shoot an armadillo.

The BBC reports that the incident occurred in East Texas. The man was injured when he shot at an armadillo he found on his property. He fired three shots. At least one bullet ricocheted off the armadillo’s shell, hitting the Texan in the face. There’s still no word on the armadillo, but the shooter was admitted to a local hospital where his jaw was wired shut.

Gervais, an outspoken supporter of animal rights issues, shared a link to a news story about the incident. He then tweeted a series of jokes, along with a photoshopped image of an armadillo in sunglasses saying “I just told him to put down the gun or one of was going to get hurt”

Gervais’ tweets jump-started the hashtag “karmadillo.” The hashtag had been previously tweeted, but according to CBC news, it was Gervais’ use of the hashtag that pushed it into trending territory. Since Gervais shared his tweets with his 92.5 million followers, the hashtag has been used more than 1,000 times.

This isn’t the first time Gervais has very publicly criticised someone for harming an animal. Gervais has frequently uses social media as a platform to discuss animal rights issues. In the past, Gervais has spoken out against a variety of practices via social media including dog fighting, whale killing, fox hunting, and other forms of animal cruelty. He was chosen as PETA’s Person of the Year in 2013. Ricky Gervais spoke out against bullfighting on Twitter that same year.

In April this year, Gervais vocally expressed disgust and frustration with the practice of trophy hunting. Gervais took to Twitter to shame a trophy hunter who posted a picture of herself with a giraffe that she hunted. The tweets went viral, and sparked quite debate.

Gervais was in the news last week following his remarks on the killing of a famous lion in Zimbabwe. Gervais chose to respond to the news of the death of Cecil the lion by posting a series of tweets and images. He admitted that he couldn’t understand the appeal of trophy hunting, calling the practice “mental.” The final tweet of the series was a poignant image of himself cradling a small dog, encouraging his followers to take action for animal rights.

“Trophy hunting, poaching, dog torture festivals…it seems like a losing battle but let’s fight it anyway” said Gervais.

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