WARNING: Article contains graphic images
A huntress has been told that she's raising a four-year-old 'assassin' after taking her daughter on hunting trips.
Jesica Murphy, 23, is an artist and stay-at-home-mum from Raglan, New Zealand.
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She began hunting at just four years old and begged her stepdad Brendan, 40, to take her weekly hunts. Soon after she began to hunt with the family, including her grandfather Ray Crake, 70.
Now, Jesica is passing on her passion to her daughter, Lyla - and the four-year-old loves to go on trips with her mum. The mum says that she's trying to teach her daughter the value of wildlife and where it comes from.
They take on deer, magpies, possums and rabbits whilst attempting to respect the animals as a food source.
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Specifically, she tries to explain the benefits of her eating habits and lifestyle, from consuming only free-range meat in comparison to the mass produced caged meat that many of us might regularly purchase from supermarkets.
The mum has started to teach other children as well as her daughter, in hopes of educating them on organic meat and respecting nature.
However, Jesica said that - along with support from the hunting community - she has also faced death threats.
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She said: "People have said how much it inspires them to see my pictures out hunting, how awesome it is to see a female hunter so passionate, and how great of a role model I am not only to my daughter, but to the younger generations.
"I have also received numerous death threats telling me to kill myself in as many different ways as they can or telling me I'm a murderer and things like 'you should bathe in your own mother's blood and see if that makes you sick'.
"I received hundreds and hundreds of hateful comments and messages about my daughter, telling me she's going to be a murderer or an assassin when she's older and that I've messed her up for life and this is not how to raise a child.
"It's bizarre the way people think they can judge and talk to others in this way just because of our lifestyle and because we choose to source our free-range meat organically instead of eating meat from an animal that's been caged its entire life and is pumped full of hormones and other chemicals to make it grow faster and abnormally.
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"I found the best way to respond was by not responding at all. I was taught this way of life and couldn't be more thankful for it, no hateful comments are going to change that."
To date, the biggest animal Jessica has hunted was a bull tahr on New Zealand's South Island. These mammals can weigh up to 300-pounds at full adult size.
However, Jesica's small frame can often be a hindrance when it comes to big game such as this. On one occasion, Jesica fractured her spine and sprained her hip from transporting a 99-pound pig when she was just a child.
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She continued to say: "One problem I always face when hunting is due to being so petite. It makes it a lot harder to be able to handle bigger pigs safely as well as carry them."
Featured Image Credit: MEDIA DRUM WORLDTopics: World News, Hunting, Animals