{"id":23996,"date":"2025-03-14T16:40:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-14T16:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=23996"},"modified":"2025-03-14T16:40:13","modified_gmt":"2025-03-14T16:40:13","slug":"influencer-forced-to-flee-australia-after-enraging-locals-with-viral-video-of-her-taking-baby-wombat-from-its-mother","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/?p=23996","title":{"rendered":"Influencer forced to flee Australia after enraging locals with viral video of her taking baby wombat from its mother"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Officials have revealed that an influencer shown in a viral video snatching a baby wombat from its mother has left Australia.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Montana<\/a>-based content creator Sam Jones experienced the frustration of an entire nation after what appeared to be a viral stunt didn’t pay off.<\/p>\n

Jones, who also goes by Samantha Strable, shared a video of herself laughing as she picked up a baby wombat from the side of the road and ran towards her vehicle, while the joey’s mother is seen frantically following her.<\/p>\n

As she held the visibly-agitated\u00a0animal<\/a>\u00a0up to the camera, Jones said while grinning: “I caught a baby wombat!”<\/p>\n

The influencer was seemingly aware that this wasn\u2019t going to plan as the wombat could be heard making hissing noises. People who know their animals remarked that this was a clear sign it was distressed.<\/p>\n

Jones eventually relinquished the wombat saying: \u201cOK, mom is right there…and she is p**sed. Alright, let’s let him go.”<\/p>\n

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She insists she picked the joey up because she thought it was sick and immediately returned it to its mother.<\/p>\n

But as you can imagine… this didn\u2019t go down well when it hit the internet.<\/p>\n

Politicians began weighing in and made it clear that Jones wasn\u2019t welcome in the country.<\/p>\n

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The Australian PM called the stunt an ‘outrage’ (9 News)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese made a dig at Jones and said the act was an \u2018outrage\u2019.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cTake a baby crocodile from its mother and see how you go there.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake another animal that can actually fight back rather than stealing a baby wombat from its mother.\u201d<\/p>\n

After the video went viral on\u00a0social media<\/a>, the federal government began taking steps to see Jones deported under the claim that she had violated Australia\u2019s biosecurity and animal welfare laws.<\/p>\n

However, Jones ended up leaving of her own free will.<\/p>\n

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The influencer has now left the country after talks of her visa being revoked (9 News)<\/cite><\/div>\n

Minister Tony Burke\u00a0spoke to<\/a>\u00a0the Daily Mail and joked: \u201cThere’s never been a better day to be a baby wombat in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, it is not clear whether the government would have had grounds to terminate Jones’ visa, as she has not been charged with a crime or deemed a threat to the nation.<\/p>\n

At the time Australia’s Home Affairs minister Tony Burke said: \u201cEither way, given the level of scrutiny that will happen if she ever applies for a visa again, I\u2019ll be surprised if she even bothers. I can’t wait for Australia to see the back of this individual, I don’t expect she will return.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jones has since defended her actions, writing in a lengthy statement on Instagram: “I was concerned it may have been sick or injured and made a snap judgement to pick up the joey and see if this was the case.<\/p>\n

“I ran, not to rip the joey away from its mother, but from fear she might attack me. The snap judgement I made in these moments was never from a place of harm or stealing a joey.<\/p>\n

“While I was unbelievably excited to see such an amazing animal, I looked it over quickly and immediately returned it to its mother.”<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Jones said she realises she ‘did not handle this situation as best as I should have’ and was ‘truly sorry for the distress I have caused’.<\/p>\n

She also insisted ‘this was never about social media or getting likes’.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Officials have revealed that an influencer shown in a viral video snatching a baby wombat from its mother has left Australia. Montana-based content creator Sam Jones experienced the … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23996"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23996\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23998,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23996\/revisions\/23998"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usdailys.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}