Facebook Bans Ricky Gervais' 3-Year-Old Post on Trophy Hunters

Ricky Gervais has mocked Facebook for deleting one of his posts from three years ago in which he condemned trophy hunting.

The comedian is an outspoken opponent of the cruel recreation sport and has long used his platform to campaign for the practice to be completely banned.

Trophy hunting is the hunting of wild animals for sport. Usually, large animals such as rhinos, elephants, lions, pumas and bears are targeted so that hunters can pose with their prizes or take home certain body parts such as heads, horns, or claws.

Gervais took to Twitter on Sunday to laugh at how a Facebook post he made about trophy hunting back in 2018 has only just been flagged and banned by the social media platform.

The 60-year-old shared a screenshot of his post, which drew a warning from Facebook to say it goes against their community standards on harassment and bullying.

The post itself read: "A couple of c****, dressed up like c****, shooting a beautiful animal, then posing with the murdered carcass like right c**** and posting it on social media to show the world what c**** they are."

Gervais didn't share the attached photo of who he was describing in his caption, however, he also shared the same post on Twitter in 2018 and it showed two trophy hunters posing with what appears to be a dead ibex.

Facebook's warning on the post continues: "We have these standards because we want everyone to feel respected and welcome on Facebook."

Gervais has described trophy hunting as "humanity at its very worst."

"Why are we even having to make the case for banning trophy hunting in the year 2020?" Gervais said last year, per The Evening Standard.

"It's hard to think of anything more sickening or senseless than killing an animal for entertainment, then hacking it up so you can display its body parts and brag about it."

Gervais was then speaking on the fifth anniversary of the death of Cecil, the lion who was shot by a U.S. dentist in Zimbabwe in 2015.

"Trophy hunting is humanity at its very worst. We've had five years to do something since the killing of Cecil made everyone aware of what is going on," Gervais added.

The comedian also won the first-ever "Cecil Award," which was created to commemorate the well-known Zimbabwean lion.

The Humane Society International (HSI) has thanked Gervais for bringing the issue to a wide audience.

"When I think of those who have effectively used their platform to speak out on behalf of animals, Ricky Gervais is at the top of the list," Kitty Block, the acting president and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, said in 2018.

"He doesn't shy away from calling out cruelty in its most entrenched forms, and I cannot think of a better example of this than after the killing of Cecil."