The animal rescuer who 'saved' a shark secretly hunts big game with a bow and arrow

An Australian man who runs a wildlife shelter and features his rescues on YouTube has been outed as a hunter of big game.

Josh "Ferret" Neille from Gippsland gained fame after he was bitten on the leg by a lemon shark while trying to wrangle the creature with some rope, in a video which went viral. Neille was fishing with friends when they hooked the shark.

The clip shows Neille diving into the water to try and remove the hook, but the shark turns around and bites him on the leg.

Speaking to 3AW, Neille said the shark was eventually dragged on board where it died as it was being treated.

Despite claiming to be an animal rescuer, Neille's Facebook secret profile shows he hunts big game in his spare time, with many photos and comments revealing his preferred weapon as a bow and arrow.

Under the pseudonym Fer Ferretson, Neille posted photos of him posing with dead animals including bulls and donkeys that he reportedly shot and killed. Storyful contacted Facebook to verify the account belonged to Neille.

In some of the photos, he describes the animals as critters – and the wording suggests he was engaging in population control. According to Storyful, there was no evidence on his Facebook profile showed Neille was doing this in an "official capacity".

Bow hunting is legal in every Australian state except Tasmania. Animal rights activists have called for it to be universally banned, arguing the native wildlife suffers a long, slow and painful death.

In 2015, the Sydney Morning Herald reported a female kangaroo had struggled through the bushes of a golf course for four days before dying of blood loss, after being shot in the leg by an arrow.