Pictures shared by a U.S. hunter on his tweeter account showing his sons posing with dead lions have triggered widespread condemnation online, according to a local media report.

What have ignited the disputes are a set of pictures posted last year by Allen Tarpley from the U.S. state of Indiana that showed the scenes of his sons hunting wild animals.

One of the pictures captioned "My 7 year old with his first lion" showed Tarpley's younger son crouching beside a slain lion while holding a shotgun.

In another picture, the hunter's nine-year-old elder son was playing on an i Pad while leaning on the dead lion. Yet a third picture featured the seven-year-old sitting behind a lifeless antelope, also with his gun standing by and pointing the sky.

The images have recently been uncovered by a South African anti-game hunting group, whose criticism has seen a wave of responses by online animal lovers.

"The fact that a child can casually lean against the corpse of this animal and play with technology is chilling," said a spokeswoman for We Will Not Be Silenced About Hunters, the activist group that found the images.

"How sad that you and your family enjoy killing," tweeted animal lover Jane Green. "Those canned hunts are great, aren't they. Killing a drugged, tame animal!"

Tarley, despite having terminated his tweeter account, shot back in an interview and said people who don't hunt don't understand the process.

"There was no media hype about Planned Parenthood selling baby parts but one lion gets killed and everyone goes crazy", said Tarley, whose current job is a construction company boss.

Killing of wild animals, especially lions, has become a hot topic since early July, when reports of U.S. dentist Walter Palmer shooting dead Cecil the lion, an animal celebrity in the Sub-Saharan African nation of Zimbabwe, stirred up global outrage.