Ashley Benson Made A Major Halloween Faux Pas

One look at Ashley Benson's Instagram will show you that she's a major fan of Halloween (and posting selfies). The star is all about celebrating everyone's favorite spooky holiday, but her costume idea for this year was a little tasteless. According to E! Online, Ashley Benson posted an Instagram of a "Cecil the Lion" Halloween costume, and her fans were pretty upset.

Benson posted a pic of her in a shiny gold jumpsuit with a giant fur hood and included the caption "Help! Can't decide on my Halloween costume this year! What do you guys think of this cecil the lion costume?" Assuming "Cecil the Lion" refers to Cecil, a famous 13-year-old lion killed in Zimbabwe this year by an American hunter, the caption (and costume) are a little uncouth. She recognized this and quickly edited the photo to remove the reference, but E! has a screenshot of the original caption.

It turns out Benson wasn't even wearing Yandy's Cecil the Lion costume. The costume she was wearing is listed on the site as the Deluxe Lion costume. The real Cecil the Lion one is a leotard as opposed to a jumpsuit. I'm not sure how she came up with the idea to call herself Cecil, but it was obviously a bad choice.

Here's Benson in the Instagram she posted of her costume idea.

This is a far cry from her totally cute costumes last year. The Halloween-loving Pretty Little Liars star excitedly promoted the Halloween PLL episode on Instagram, and she even posted a pic of the cute ghost cookie she received last year.

Her group costume featured her friends all dressed up as skeletons.

Benson went all out for her second Halloween costume, which was a zombie doll look featuring huge false eyelashes and a white corset.

Benson clearly loves to dress up, so it would be easy for her to find another Halloween costume that's a little bit more culturally sensitive. Here's a hippie look from a photo shoot that could have easily translated to Halloween.

And Benson's totally channeling Men in Black in this cute mirror selfie. The crop top gives it a little edge, but the fedora would totally make her costume.

Benson and PLL co-star Lucy Hale could totally go as matching characters in scrubs. They clearly already have the costumes. Meredith Grey, anyone?

In this chic look, Benson is totally channeling everyone's favorite French cartoon character — Madeline! With the wide-brimmed yellow hat, blue jacket and oh-so-French striped shirt, she's well on her way to a perfect Madeline costume using items she already has in her closet.

Finally, Benson could just pull a Karen from Mean Girls and wear a simple dress and animal ears. She's already got the kitten ears, so this costume is totally easy as well.

Bottom line, if I can shop Benson's closet for this many cute Halloween costumes, there's no reason she should be wearing something that pokes fun at a heartbreaking animal tragedy. Here's hoping she picks something a little less controversial by the time Halloween rolls around.