[Pics] Gore, Gruesome - Hideous animal cruelty - Zimbabwe: Animal Cruelty Photos

[This is one of the old but important stories from the original AfricanCrisis website that I am converting on to the new site, in the new format. Much of Zimbabwe's agriculture and wildlife has been wiped out since these photos were posted. The most recent information I got early in 2009, was that Mugabe's army is being fed by large numbers of elephants which the army is culling. The animals are shot, and thrown in refrigerated trucks. Jan]

	Zimbabwe: Animal Cruelty Photos NB: Most of the photos you are about to see were smuggled out of Zimbabwe. Mugabe is very sensitive to the truth getting out. They charge journalists US$10,000 for a VISA to Zimbabwe and US$1,000 per each day of their stay. This effectively keeps most news agencies, even the large ones out of Zimbabwe for most of the time. Zimbabweans have told me that it is extremely dangerous carrying a camera or video camera around, and if the War Vets see you with one they will attack you and take it away. I recently spoke to a South African journalist who went into Zimbabwe illegally and who had to flee the country because the War Vets discovered he was a photo journalist. He lost a lot of his film footage in the process. I was recently told that the mysterious shooting of an American citizen inside Zimbabwe at a roadblock might be related to the fact that he was travelling around the eastern parts of Zimbabwe taking photos and gathering evidence of the destruction. As you can imagine, getting hold of photographs from inside Zimbabwe is very difficult, and anyone there who ventures out trying to obtain them is taking a serious risk. People have tried posting CD's or sending them by courier out of Zimbabwe, but they just go missing. So most of these photos which reached me were actually smuggled out of the country. I did manage to get some by e-mail.
	ZC0001.JPG
	The Desertification of Zimbabwe This photo comes from the Justice for Agriculture website (http://www.JusticeForAgriculture.com) It is a satellite image of Zimbabwe, showing land surface reflectivity, in the contrasting farm systems. High reflectivity, i.e. light colours, denotes land degradation and thus diminution in productivity. In UNESCO terminology, permanent or long-term reduction in the productivity of land is a desertification process. NB: Botswana to the south west of Zimbabwe is largely a desert country, and South Africa to the south is dry and semi-arid. Note that Zambia (north west) and Mozambique (east) have a lot of vegetation. Note the degradation in Zimbabwe, especially along the eastern border with Mozambique. Generally speaking, more rain falls in the northern regions shown in this photo, and less rain falls in the south. Yet, you will see that the desertification is taking place even in the north. The reason there is more desertification in the east rather than the west is probably because the east is more heavily inhabited by people.
	ZC0002.JPG
	Animal Cruelty by the War Vets Nandi the dog was beaten and abducted, she found her way back to the farm. The side of her face had to be stitched after being badly lacerated.
	ZC0003.JPG
	"Blackjack" the dog was beaten unconscious by war vets - his injuries were a fractured skull - fractured Tibia perforated ear and eye - A 12 inch axe cut behind his ear - he has made a good recovery, but will be blind for the rest of his life.
	ZC0004.JPG
	ZC0005.JPG
	ZC0006.JPG
	Take a look at my drawing of a traditional Zimbabwean axe below. These axes are common among the blacks there. They are made of wood with a steel blade wedged into the club-like head. The steel blade can come loose on occasion.
	ZC0008.JPG
	What you see sticking out of the back of this cow is the top part of a steel blade which came out of an axe. If you look closely you'll see the wound is wider than the top which is sticking out because the bottom of the blade is quite wide. This was the doing of a War Vet…
	ZC0009.JPG
	Look at this axe wound in this cow's head…
	ZC0052.JPG
	A close-up of the wound…
	ZC0053.JPG
	This Cow was slashed by war vets on a farm in Chiredzi. They tried to chop her back leg off while she was still alive. You can see the damage an axe can do. She had to be destroyed.
	ZC0010.JPG
	Bush Refrigeration The photo below reminds me of film footage I once saw on South African TV of an instance where blacks in South Africa stole a white farmers cattle. They then cut the legs off so the living animal could not move. In "African" terms this might be called "Bush Refrigeration" - the animal is alive but can't move… I saw live footage of such an animal. I must try to get it sometime… it is hideous… Below you can see how they tried to cut the leg off this live cow. That was probably the work of an axe…What kind of sicko does it take to do this?
	ZC0011.JPG
	Cow mutilated by war veterans at Howard Hall’s farm on 14 October 2001. She was slashed open from behind, her eyesgouged out and she wasleft to die.
	HB37.JPG
	Cow mutilated by war veterans at Howard Hall’s farm on 14 October 2001.
	HB38.JPG
	Here is how a Human Rights Activist in Zimbabwe described what happened to this horse:-"This horse was loose in a stall then the State sponsored thugs (who were holding the owner hostage in how own home) placed hay bales around it and burned it alive". She went on to write that:- "I have just heard that nine MDC [Movement for Democratic Change] women have been taken to a camp and are being gang raped... being invected with HIV is a death sentence in Africa... President Mbeki you are condoning all this - you are complicit....."
	HB73.JPG
	Here is a close-up showing the burn marks on the horse
	ZC0049.JPG
	Poachers have destroyed 60% of all the wildlife in Zimbabwe in 2 years. Some endangered species like Wild Dogs and Cheetahs have become extinct in Zimbabwe. Most of the animals are killed by the War Vets and others are killed by starving blacks. I have been told that when the War Vets kill animals they eat only a bit and leave the rest to rot. There is a tremendous amount of waste involved. They put up snares and use packs of dogs to chase the animals into the snares. Even if they catch several animals, they may leave most of them to die slow agonising deaths. They are often extremely wasteful and only eat a small portion of that which they killed while leaving the rest to rot. This poached elephant found in the Victoria Falls area in April 2002
	ZC0012.JPG
	These horses on the Gourlays Ranch had their legs horribly hacked with a panga. They had to be put down afterwards (May 2002)
	ZC0014.JPG
	A close-up of the horrible injuries…
	ZC0014B.JPG
	ZC0014C.JPG
	A close-up of the horrible injuries…
	ZC0014D.JPG
	This giraffe was caught with a snare around its neck near Turk Mine (May 2002)
	ZC0015.JPG
	ZC0016.JPG
	Snares are the death of Africa. They are terrible and extremely cruel… Animals die slow agonising deaths…
	ZC0017.JPG
	Rhinos: So rare and threatened, with only a few hundred left in Africa. Here we see photos of poached Rhinos…
	ZC0018.JPG
	Here we see two photos of baby Rhinos which were poached and skinned at the Bubiana Conservancy… Isn't this dreadful? These creatures are almost extinct…
	ZC0019.JPG
	ZC0020.JPG
	Here we see Zebra caught in snares and left to die at Fountain Safaris in June 2002
	ZC0021.JPG
	ZC0022.JPG
	Here we see an example of the terrible waste. This Zebra's limbs have been hacked off and the rest of the meat has been left to rot
	ZC0023.JPG
	The rotting flesh of once beautiful animals. They did not even have the decency to eat the meat and put it to good use… Just waste and purposeless death…
	ZC0024.JPG
	ZC0025.JPG
	This Impala was snared at Fountain Safaris in April 2002. Note how the wire snare cut deep into its stomach causing it a slow and agonising death
	ZC0026.JPG
	Death of a Pregnant Giraffe The story below reminds me of something I heard from a Portuguese man who had fought in Angola. He told me that he once saw a photo in a Portuguese Police station of a pregnant white woman who had her stomach slit open by blacks and had her baby cut out of her... Here is how a Rancher described what exactly happened to the poor giraffe below:-"Let me just tell you of the fate of a once beautiful giraffe. We monitored this animal for some time as she was pregnant and soon was to give birth to her calf. I was keen to see the birth process, so I kept a very close watch on her movements. As it so happened this was not to be .. The political situation in our area was a bit scary and we were ordered to go to town until the situation eased. On my return to the ranch, eleven days later, I went looking for this giraffe only to discover that she had been caught by a heavy wire snare and had died with her new calf half out of her body. Because of her great size and strength she had uprooted the tree to which the wire snare was tied and dragged it about a hundred metres or so where it got wedged against other trees. Here she struggled in anguish to free herself clearing the surrounding bush as she did so. How long the struggle went on for I do not know but it sickened me to think that beautiful animals such as this one died, and was left to rot in the bush then to be set upon by vultures and predators, and those that set these snares did not bother to check what had been caught, but continued putting up snares in other areas. This is what is happening right now in Zimbabwe." This terrible photo shows the pregnant giraffe which was cut open by War Vets. The War Vets removed the still live foetus. The arrow points to the head of the foetus.
	ZC0027.JPG
	The baby giraffe can be seen lying among the remains of its mother.
	ZC0055.JPG
	The dead mother after her terrible struggle.
	ZC0056.JPG
	The War Vets are destroying everything in their path. Here we see them cutting down the very slow growing and valuable teak and mahogany trees
	ZC0028.JPG
	ZC0029.JPG
	The hungry blacks even poach the valuable Tiger fish which are a tourist attraction at Lake Kariba for foreign fisherman
	ZC0030.JPG
	Poached Barble…
	ZC0031.JPG
	Another giraffe caught by those hellish snares…
	ZC0032.JPG
	Another antelope cut horribly by a snare
	ZC0033.JPG
	This is a government document ordering animals to be shot on various farms for the ZANU(PF) (Mugabe's ruling party) youth.
	ZC0034.JPG
	ZC0035.JPG
	Look at all the wire recovered from the huge lines of snares laid by the War Vets.
	ZC0036.JPG
	Snares recovered by the truck-load…
	ZC0037.JPG
	Another poached elephant
	ZC0038.JPG
	They're eating Warthog… Didn't Mugabe say that the blacks would all be growing maize?… This sure is a far cry from his lies…
	ZC0039.JPG
	Another poached elephant. Its head and tusks are missing… That is probably what they were after
	ZC0041.JPG
	The dried out carcass of another fine antelope… note all the snare wire on the ground…
	ZC0042.JPG
	Another beautiful animal dead in a tangle of wire. They did not even bother to eat it… Just another pointless, wasteful death…
	ZC0043.JPG
	The same animal from behind
	ZC0044.JPG
	Note in this close-up the rotting carcass
	ZC0045.JPG
	Here is how a Farmer described what happened to the poor warthog below: "Yesterday, I went to the farm, to find another group of poachers and dogshard at work. The poachers fled, leaving behind a very sad sight. Thewarthog in the attached photograph was still alive when I got there, andwas having severe difficulty breathing because of the damage inflicted toits snout by small hand axes. According to eye witnesses, the warthog hadbeen battling the poachers for at least 4 hours, sustaining more and morecuts to the snout, until they ran away leaving me to destroy the animal." Note the hand axes the writer refers to are the same ones I wrote about which were being used on the cattle.
	ZC0048.JPG
	A close-up of the poor Warthog's wounds…
	ZC0051.JPG
	A leopard caught in a neck snare…
	ZC0050.JPG
	A dead Cheetah. Cheetahs are now EXTINCT in Zimbabwe… So are Wild Dogs… Oh, I forgot, this is what Mugabe called "Land Reform"…
	ZC0057.JPG
	Isn't the photo below a refreshing sight to see? That is a lady at a Wildlife sanctuary here in South Africa. Just a few hundred miles to the north lies the destruction which you have witnessed on these pages. Will it come here also? Many of the photos you saw on the previous pages were from similar Wildlife sanctuaries and conservancies which were in Zimbabwe and which don't exist any more…
	ZC0054.JPG
	The headline in a South African environmental newspaper, telling of the destruction in Zimbabwe
	ZC0046.JPG
	This photo comes from the above newspaper. Read the story below of how this poor buck was disembowled by the War Vets…
	ZC0047.JPG
	(Note: This story below is reproduced from Biosphere, a South African newspaper) Poaching Horror The full scale slaughter of game at farms and reserves is so severe that endangered species such as the Wild Dog and Cheetah have now become extinct in Zimbabwe. The national parks which used to be the pride of the country are being destroyed while pleas of help go unheeded worldwide. An investigating team reported that tons of ivory is being exported to Asia and lion to Nigeria. A ZCTF spokesperson said "it is an organised business and government officials and the police are involved." We present here a personal account of this tragedy. The authors name has been withheld to protect his/her identity. To highlight the loss of wildlife in Zimbabwe, as things are at this time, through rampant poaching, illegal hunting and downright slaughter on a daily basis, I thought it proper to write down for the reader, who would take the time to read this article, some of my experiences on the ground. Since the land invasions started on the 10 March 2000, where wild animals were done awav with in the most horrendous and barbaric ways, all of these incidences in the course of my duty, which was to protect and care for the wild animals on our property. Like all living things, none of us want to die, and every living species on this earth has its reasons for staying alive. God gave us humans dominion over all living things, and at the same time, because of our superiority, we were given the charge to be sensible and wise, and utilise our responsibilities properly toward them. While patrolling along our eastern border game fence one morning, with a game scout, we could hear the distant sound of dogs barking ahead of us. It could only mean one thing, poachers. We ran as fast as we could toward the sound, and as we reached the top of a rise ahead, we could see several dogs and a lot of dust with whatever it was they were attacking caught in the fence ahead, trying to break free. Added to this we witnessed three poachers rushing in with their clubs and choppers. During this confusion and noise, they did not hear us approach and we managed to shoot two of their dogs. On hearing the shots the three poachers dropped everything and ran off into the bush, followed by the rest of their dogs. The animal, an eland cow, then broke free from the fence and headed for some mopane trees with an iron rod, sharpened on one end like a spear, pushed through her stomach behind her rib cage, protruding about 6" or so on the other side of her. We followed and saw what looked like two balloons appear on either side of her as she ran through the trees. She had in fact pulled her stomach out onto the ground because theiron rod had caught between two trees, disembowelling her. Luckily I managed to put her down. This whole incident happened within a few minutes, and the poachers got away. Can you imagine what pain and agony an animal goes through when shot by a poacher through her jaw, severing her tongue, and added to this, she is pregnant. She can neither eat or drink and after several days of this in the hot African bush, she is hounded by hyena until she weakens and then is set upon and killed, and then devoured by her pursuers. On another day, while hot on the tracks of two poachers, we heard the sound of something thrashing about in the bush ahead of us. Running forward we discovered a young impala ram with his left hind leg missing. I immediately had to shoot him. On examining this animal, we came to the conclusion that it had somehow been clubbed over the head rendering it unconscious. The poachers must have thought they had killed it, and because they knew they were being pursued, had hurriedly cut off its leg and run off. Needless to say, because of this incident the poachers got a head start on us and got away. Walking behind the tracks of a big bull giraffe, on one occasion, we discovered that this animal was dragging its left hind leg. As its tracks were days old we did not expect to come across it so soon, as these animals cover great distances even in a stressed condition. We saw it ahead of us on the bank of the river where a well used game path enters the riverbed. The poor thing was caught around its neck by a heavy wire snare, tied to a well established tree to one side of the path, struggling to get free. As the ground beneath its feet was on a slope with loose stone it was impossible for it to balance, and the wire snare was tight around its neck choking it. I had no option but to put this giraffe down. On examining its left hind leg we discovered a wire around its hock causing it to swell to four times its size. Also rendering the leg useless. A month or two later we discovered a female zebra hanging from a tree with a heavy wire snare around her throat. We can only guess that this animal in her desperate bid to free herself had somehow jumped up catching the wire onto a protruding broken off branch on the tree where it caught. As she came down again, her front legs were off the ground and she hung there till she died. How terrible it is to find so many hundreds of our wild animals dying in this cruel way. We had, around our home, many semi-tame warthog who on occasion gave us and our guests much amusement. One female in particular by the name of "Pigera" was well known by all who visited our ranch, and over a period of five years had reared nineteen offspring. Many of these stayed close to our home. Such lovely creatures, all given names by the many children who visited the ranch. Now of course they have all been killed and eaten by those who forced us off our ranch. Walking past a warthog hole one evening, close to our house, we discovered a warthog female wedged in the entrance of the hole, still alive, with horrific chop marks all over her face. Whoever did this to her must have been disturbed during his actions and ran off, for his bare footprints were visible. Many of our wild animals are being slaughtered in this way and despite the many appeals for help and assistance to the outside world, these still go unheeded. To me it seems that all want to be seen to be involved, but at the same time do nothing, and as each day passes so the carnage continues to poachers and invaders. What else must we do to alert the world to what is happening today in Zimbabwe. Let me Just tell you of the fate of a once beautiful giraffe. We monitored this animal for some time as she was pregnant and soon was to give birth to her calf. I was keen to see the birth process, so I kept a very dose watch on her movements. As it so happened this was not to be. The political situation in our area was a bit scary and we were ordered to go to town until the situation eased. On my return to the ranch, eleven days later, I went looking for this giraffe only to discover that she had been caught by a heavy wire snare and had died with her new calf half out of her body. Because of her great size and strength she had uprooted the tree to which the wire snare was tied and dragged it about a hundred metres or so where it got wedged against other trees. Here she struggled in anguish to free herself clearing the surrounding bush as she did so. How long the struggle went on for I do not know but it sickened me to think that beautiful animals such as this one died, and was left to rot in the bush then to be set upon by vultures and predators, and those that set these snares did not bother to check what had been caught, but continued putting up snares in other areas. This is what is happening right now in Zimbabwe. The situation was very bizarre and we all believed that it was just temporary but almost 30 months down the way we are still hanging in. The impact on the conservancy on the wildlife in the area, on peoples lives will always be remembered. So our hippo unaware of the human tragedy developing continued to live in this new land of milk and honey. But in steps, man and the invaders all with different agendas and the man pressure on the landscape, cutting down of thousands of trees, fires and snaring and poaching and uncontrolled exploitation. And this lone flourishing hippo caught in this conflict was destined to be another carcass, another skeleton and so in early 2002 they who see the dollars and not the future who take for today but care not for tomorrow set about the destruction of this meat on legs and with planks with hundreds of nails, so they locate a path that the hippo frequents and one evening as the hippo moves off to graze so it steps onto this spiky abomination and in the confusion of the pain and the blood and the screams of anger, so they arrive and in the same way with dogs and spears and whatever means they have so the hippo dies an agonising death and the dollars come in and the beer flows and a symbol of the rivers recovery is now a maggot invested carcass. And because the gods they serve say to them that the head must be left because the spirits will be angry and so two months later we discover just the head. The silence is deafening as this government onslaught against the very land that nurtures them continues unabated. Please do what you can to save our Wild Animals For those wishing to help please send an e-mail to Zimbabwe Conservation Task Force at: galorand@mweb.co.zw

Posted By: Jan
AfricanCrisis Webmaster
Author of: Government by Deception