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Australia wildfires: Kylie Jenner donates $1m to relief effort after being called a hypocrite

Reality star criticised for wearing mink slippers after sharing a post about the rising death toll of animals 

Sarah Young
Wednesday 08 January 2020 09:19 GMT
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Chris Hemsworth donates $1 million towards Australia's fire-fighting efforts

Kylie Jenner has donated $1m (£762,000) towards local fire services and the wildlife relief effort in Australia after being labelled a “hypocrite”.

Earlier this week, the Keeping Up With Kardashians star posted several photos to her Instagram Story regarding the rising death toll of animals in Australia, including an image of a koala alongside the caption: “Over half a BILLION animals have been killed in Australia. This breaks my heart.”

Just hours later the 22-year-old shared a separate Instagram Story of herself wearing a pink pair of Louis Vuitton mink slippers, prompting a number of social media users to call her out for being hypocritical.

“Kylie posting about how she is feeling heartbroken about the death of animals in Australia due to fire and then posting her wearing a slipper made of mink's fur is the biggest hypocrisy of 2020...,” one person wrote on Twitter.

Another added: “I don’t understand how Kylie Jenner can post about the poor animals dying in the Australian fires and then two snaps later post a picture of her wearing real mink fur shoes.”

In light of the negative feedback, a representative for Jenner has confirmed that the reality star has donated one million US dollars towards the various relief efforts helping to fight the Australian fires.

So far, the fires have claimed 24 lives and destroyed more than 1,500 homes, ravaging through more than four million hectares of land.

Ecologists at the University of Sydney have estimated that around 480m animals had been killed in the wildfires, including 8,000 koalas.

Jenner isn’t the only celebrity who has donated funds to local Australian fire services.

On Tuesday, actor Chris Hemsworth pledged to donate $1m towards those who have been affected by the worsening wildfire crisis, while comedian Celeste Barber has helped to raise more than $27m ($14.3m) through a fundraising page.

A number of other high-profile figures, including Selena Gomez, Pink and Nicole Kidman have donated hundreds of thousands, while Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett led a number of Hollywood stars urging people to take action and support Australia during their speeches at the Golden Globes on Sunday.

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