Sensitive Photos

Caution: These photos show the results of poachers’ harm and torture to wildlife. They are not easy to view, but they are important because they show the actual results of what poachers do to wild animals.

Our goal at the Shiraz & Leili Wildlife Foundation is to protect wildlife, and that necessitates telling the truth about poachers’ grim exploitation of living creatures. These photos show some of that. But you should know that we have seen much worse injuries to wild animals that are not shown here because they are beyond heartbreaking!

While the well-armed, coordinated teams of sophisticated poachers cause the most widespread death and destruction of our world’s wildlife, it is the primitive poachers with snares, arrows, and spears who cause extremely painful injuries that lead to slow, agonizing deaths for animals.

After meeting with Kenya Wildlife Service veterinarians and rangers, we quickly realized that a great deal of ground equipment was necessary to find and treat these gruesomely injured wild animals. Thus, the focus of our Hannibal 1 and Hannibal 2 projects was to provide large trucks, vet support vehicles, ranger patrol vehicles, cranes, large trailers, large “crates,” and a large 130 H.P. tractor.

Daily aerial surveillance plus on-the-ground ranger patrols find and identify these emergency situations, then quickly radio the location to mobile veterinary teams that rush to the scene as survival time is limited.

As of the writing of this (Fall of 2024), more than 99% of the funds in our Foundation have been provided personally by Shiraz and Leili. However, in order to take conservation to the next level (purchase of helicopters, around a dozen ranger and vet support vehicles, etc.), it will require outside donations, as well.