Ashley Benson got a head start on Halloween this year, and she took to Instagram to ask for her fans honest opinions on her costume - and she sure got what she asked for. While this seems innocent enough, her interesting choice of costume has caused some serious outrage from angered fans.
"Help! Can't decide on my Halloween costume this year," the 25-year-old "Pretty Little Liars" star initially captioned the photo of herself in a sexy lion costume, according to E! News. "What do you guys think of this Cecil the Lion costume?"
Fans immediately started expressing their anger in the comment section as a "sexy" version of the beloved lion, who was killed this past summer by Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer, seemed inappropriate. Once Benson realized the outrage she had caused, she quickly changed the caption to "this lion costume" instead of "this Cecil the Lion" costume.
Many people began to tell her the costume was "offensive" and "in poor taste," according to The Hollywood Reporter. "How dare you make fun of a lion who innocently died from a inhuman act?" one user wrote. "It's a shame lions can't wear dead ignorant humans as costumes. Totally unaware douche," another added.
While the comments were mostly negative, some did praise Benson for celebrating Cecil's life. For those interested in copying Benson's controversial look - and hopefully after all this outrage, there aren't many - the costume is available for $150 on Yandy.com.
Halloween should be interesting this year, as it seems Benson isn't the only one with the idea of doing something Cecil the Lion-related. Toward the end of August, several costumes for the upcoming season started to come out, and a Walter Palmer one made its way to a few sites, as HNGN previously reported. The costume goes for $60 and features a severed lion's head, a smock, gloves, dentist tools and fake blood for splattering. At the time of its release, not a single costume had been sold yet, and we hope it has remained that way.
A photo posted by Ashley Benson (@itsashbenzo) on Oct 6, 2015 at 1:57pm PDT
