A female bowhunter has come under fire for posing with a slain giraffe, after comedian Ricky Gervais lambasted her on Twitter.

Gervais tweeted a picture of Rebecca Francis on Monday, with the caption: 'What must've happened to you in your life to make you want to kill a beautiful animal & then lie next to it smiling?'

Nearly 19 thousand people retweeted the post.

In the photo, Francis lays on the ground next to the dead giraffe. According to her Website, the photo was taken in 2010.

Francis, a grandmother of nine, has reportedly hunted large game in three separate continents.

'My husband and I love the outdoors and any kind of adventure,' Francis writes on her Website. 'We hunt elk and deer every year without fail, even through pregnancy, and nursing babies.'

Some of Gervais's 7 million followers on Twitter responded angrily to the post.

'There's nothing cultural about being an animal murdering vile piece of trash,' one user wrote..