Painted dogs are beautiful, intelligent, social beings, who play an important role in the ecosystem, but there are only 6,500 left in the wild, and they need your help today!

One of the biggest challenges to their survival is being caught in illegal snares. Painted dogs travel over 30 miles (50 kilometers) a day in search of prey. This puts them at constant risk of being caught in one of the thousands of snares set by poor people to catch small antelope for food.

From half a million painted dogs to 6,500 in just 50 years!

Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe is one of the last wilderness areas big enough for these creatures to survive in. 160 painted dogs live in the entire area of 14,651 square kilometers (over 5,600 square miles). Thousands of snares lie in wait surrounding the National Park. Each one could mean death for the dogs. 

Researchers track and monitor the wild dog packs. Every day in Hwange, rangers patrol the National Park. When they find a snared painted dog, it becomes a race against time to get the suffering animal help! 

What is urgently needed right now are medicines to treat injured painted dogs.

Medicines are essential to transport and treat wounded animals and give them a chance to return to their pack in the wild. 

We have partnered with Painted Dog Conservation (PDC) and agreed to ask our supporters to help get these wonderful creatures the help they need.  

Painted dogs caught in these nightmare devices die slow, painful deaths.

Snares are horrible devices. A painted dog caught in one faces days of terrible pain and stress before dying from their injuries or starvation. The cruelty is simply dreadful and because there are so few painted dogs left, every single one killed by a snare is a serious blow to their survival as a species. Your donation today can help save these majestic creatures, so please be as generous as you possibly can. 

Painted dogs are fiercely loyal to each other. The pack leader is chosen by character and not size, unlike many other species, and if one becomes sick, the rest of the pack will take turns caring for the sick individual.

Painted dogs are social creatures. They start their days with a greeting ceremony – each of them sniffing and licking one another, making high-pitched greeting sounds and wagging their tails. They are emotional creatures who mourn the loss of a pack member. Each one of these animals deserves the best possible treatment for a chance at life.

We know our supporters will do all they can to save this iconic species from extinction, but it is not enough to rescue painted dogs from a snare, only for the poor creatures to be released and trapped again. To solve this problem for the long term, PDC is engaging volunteers from local villages and teaching them about conservation and snare removal. These villagers will scour the wilderness for snares, remove them and use the salvaged wire to make wire ornaments they sell to tourists

Please, help today. We will rush lifesaving medicines as quickly as possible!