2025 Taiwan Giraffe Care Workshop

Dr. Liza Dadone

Dr Liza Dadone is a zoo veterinarian with a clinical focus and passion for giraffe medicine and conservation. She founded Giraffe Veterinary Services 2 years ago to help zoos with their giraffe medical care and to help research and better address causes of morbidity and mortality in the species.

Liza graduated from University of Pennsylvania, completed an internship at the Calgary Zoo and then a residency at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. While working at the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo as a vet and vice president, her clinical focus included giraffe lameness, reducing giraffe calf mortality with the Giraffe Plasma Bank, and conservation fieldwork.

Liza currently serves as an AZA giraffe veterinary advisor and a course instructor for the Zoo Hoofstock Trim Program. She partners with Animal Search and Rescue to help develop more effective emergency response protocols and with Save Giraffes Now to help with critical conservation initiatives.

Liza looks forward to connecting with and learning from vets at this workshop with a shared passion for advancing giraffe medicine.

Mr. Steve Foxworth

Steve Foxworth is the owner and operator of QMI consulting, and created the Zoo Hoofstock Trim program in 2018. He has been a farrier since 2002, and has held many leadership roles in the Equine Lameness Prevention Organization. His first opportunity to work with non-domestic species was in 2007, when he consulted on a lame zebra at the Denver Zoo. Since then, Steve has been at the forefront of non-domestic hoofstock species farriery, and has set the standard for how to evaluate and trim various species.

Based on this knowledge, Steve has been invited to trim hundreds of giraffe feet, both standing and sedated, and he has participated in over 70 giraffe hoof trims under anaesthesia. He consults in person and virtually, nationally and internationally, and has taught multiple educational courses at workshops, conferences, and at his facility in Colorado, and currently runs the only zoological veterinary focused course which covers hoof trimming, pathology and apparatus use and application, and is approved for CE credits.

His expertise had led him to collaborate with Dr. Liza Dadone on multiple publications and book chapters. Despite being considered an expert in his field, Steve is the consummate student and continues to question, monitor and improve upon practices regarding hoof care in zoos, to continue to elevate the standards of care for all animals under human managed care.