Kathryn Bigelow Links Elephant Poaching And Terror Groups In Powerful Animated Short

Kathryn Bigelow, director of "Zero Dark Thirty" and "The Hurt Locker," has set her sights on another war front: the attack on endangered elephants.

Bigelow made a PSA to stop ivory poaching, but instead of focusing entirely on the elephant toll, the mostly animated short highlights the human cost. Titled "Last Days," the film makes the case that terror groups such as al-Shabaab and Boko Haram make big money from the ivory trade. In a departure from the short's cartoon cut-out imagery, disturbing footage also plays of the shooting massacre at Nairobi's Westgate Mall, in which 67 civilians were killed allegedly by members of al-Shabaab.

"There are real things we can all do to stop wild elephants from disappearing from our world while cutting off funding for some of the world’s most notorious terrorist networks," Bigelow told Variety.

WARNING: Film contains graphic images and may be disturbing to some.

To that end, "Last Days" has set up a website with WildAid to raise funds for the fight.

“An elephant disappears every 15 minutes,” Bigelow also told Variety. “It is our hope that this film helps to bring an activist into existence at least that often.”

After watching the film above, check out a HuffPost Live interview with "Last Days" writer Scott Z. Burns here:

H/T AdWeek