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Prince Harry Shares Touching Instagram Post About Animal Poaching

Prince Harry won't stop fighting for the animals.
KEMPIANA, SOUTH AFRICA - DECEMBER 02: Prince Harry is shown the carcass of a rhino slaughtered for its horn in Kruger National Park, during an official visit to Africa on December 2, 2015 in Kempiana, South Africa. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Pool/WireImage)
Samir Hussein via Getty Images
KEMPIANA, SOUTH AFRICA - DECEMBER 02: Prince Harry is shown the carcass of a rhino slaughtered for its horn in Kruger National Park, during an official visit to Africa on December 2, 2015 in Kempiana, South Africa. (Photo by Samir Hussein/Pool/WireImage)

Prince Harry spent the past summer fighting a war against animal poachers, and the prince isn't ready to throw in the towel just yet.

In an emotional post to the Kensington Royal Instagram account, the prince wrote about his most recent experience at Kruger National Park.

"How can it be that 30,000 elephants were slaughtered last year alone? None of them had names, so do we not care? And for what? Their tusks?," he wrote beneath a photo of himself hugging a sedated elephant. "Seeing huge carcasses of rhinos and elephants scattered across Africa, with their horns and tusks missing is a pointless waste of beauty."

The prince released six other photos from his summer adventure in southern Africa, including a personal caption and link to more information on each post.

The photos capture both the beauty and the horror that prince witnessed while working alongside conservationists and veterinarians.

In one photo, Harry proudly revealed that getting up close and personal with these endangered animals is a family affair. "My brother William fed her three years ago in Kent just before she left under a translocation project to Tanzania where she now lives in a sanctuary... I loved being able to send William this photo."

In another, more graphic photo, Harry is seen assisting in a surgery on a black rhino whose face was mutilated by poachers. "I stared into her eyes while operating on her and thought at first that it would have been better and fairer to put her down rather than put her through the pain," the prince admitted.

The prince also revealed that the rhino survived the attack and is getting better every day.

Harry's dedication to the fight against animal poaching has brought to light past images of the prince posing over a buffalo he shot during a hunt in 2004. The prince and his brother William reportedly also went hunting at their godfather's Spanish estate in 2014. The Independent reports that the princes shot wild boar, stag and partridge, none of which are endangered or illegal to hunt.

Both elephants and black rhinos are considered endangered species in Africa. The fate of the black rhino is of utmost concern to conversationalists, who say the species' population is critically low at only 5,000 animals.

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