A Russian influencer has defended posing naked on top of an endangered elephant for Instagram photos.
Alesya Kafelnikova, the daughter of former world number one and Grand Slam-winning tennis player Yevgeny Kafelnikov, became the subject of criticism recently after footage emerged of her on a Sumatran elephant in Bali, Indonesia.
The 22-year-old shared the video with her 546,000 followers on the platform, quickly sparking outrage at her ‘insensitive’ action of using a critically-endangered animal for her own gain. She’d captioned it, ‘Natural vibes.’ In a separate post, she wrote, ‘To love nature is human nature.’
Among the criticism, one animal charity called it a ‘tragic trivialisation’, with others describing it as a ‘violation’ against the elephant and one writing, ‘Money overshadows everything.’
