Sen. Ted Cruz did a little troll hunting April 23, baiting the entirety of the Internet-enabled world with a perplexing pic of an urban safari that incited carnage across the social mediasphere.  

The Texas Republican set the trap by innocently (?) blasting out a snapshot of him and Utah Republican Mike Lee — staff told HOH the tea party pals have been tag-teaming fundraisers across the Lone Star State this week — posing atop a snarling animal pelt.  

Did a little shopping for the office with @SenMikeLee in Houston today. pic.twitter.com/t9IsNINO5G — Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) April 24, 2014

Had this Senate bromance finally gone lethal?  

What endangered species might be next on the Cruz-Lee extinction tour?  

Or was Cruz yet again practicing the art of pressing everyone’s buttons?  

“The senator was kidding,” a Cruz aide explained of the spontaneous photo op with a totally fake tiger skin rug. “He ran across it between meetings in Houston yesterday and wanted a picture.”  

Joke or not, the stunt unleashed a torrent of passionate reactions on Twitter and Facebook.  

After sifting through the thousands of comments furiously scribbled on Cruz’s social media boards, the brunt of popular opinion falls into three main camps:  

No Remorse

The God That Failed    

The Thing That Should Not Be    

* No actual tigers were harmed in the production of this blog post.  

** Or during this trip last fall to the Natural Resources Committee room: