The Victorian farming couple who say they faced a torrent of abuse after trying to trade a Lion King ooshie for water say they have no regrets after destroying the small toy on breakfast television last week.
When Melissa and Stephen realised they had a ‘one of a kind’ Lion King Woolworths Ooshie they advertised it for sale in exchange for much-needed water. However, after relentless abuse, Stephen destroyed the valuable Ooshie LIVE on air in protest of online trolls. #9Today pic.twitter.com/jVFkZ4XyTT
— The Today Show (@TheTodayShow) August 1, 2019
On Monday morning Stephen Black and his wife, Melissa, told The Today Show they were given a round of applause as they entered a pizza bar in Geelong following the on-air decapitation.
“It was the first time we had been really recognised somewhere else outside of our town,” said Melissa.
“I have been looking online at everything, and there is 100 per cent Aussie spirit in everything they are saying, but you get the negative ones as well, like we have no pride because these things can affect us so easily.”
When asked about the reaction to his destroying of the rare Simba ooshie, Stephen Black said he hadn’t even looked at social media. “But I’m happy with my actions,” he said.
“I don’t regret it.”
*holding up the severed head of the ooshie in a pizza bar* IS THIS YOUR KING?
— pixelatedboat aka “mr tweets” (@pixelatedboat) August 5, 2019
“I don’t feel the need to follow it up because my only fear in all of this is that it might change me… of course you get told things like there is a lot of support. That’s great. If it has helped someone that’s fantastic. But at the moment, after a month of frustration on the farm trying to find answers i couldn’t find, it just didn’t feel acceptable to let that go.”
“I can’t control what people say and think.”
Stephen and Melissa first made headlines last week when their live destruction of an ooshie went viral, acting as a true measurement of how far our society has fallen. The couple had hoped to sell the toy to then purchase water for irrigating their property in Katandra West. Of course, that’s not at all how it went.
“You ask yourself, ‘what is life worth?’” asks Stephen as he cuts the head off of the ooshie. “Is it worth – what, money? We don’t know. So is it worth this? It’s not.”
