The predator was dying slowly — not from poachers, not from hunger, but from tortures impossible to witness without trembling. The lion was literally being eaten alive by parasites.

In eleven years of working as an animal rescuer, he had seen a lot: animals injured in traps, newborn cubs still wet with blood. But a nightmare like this — never.

The lion could barely stand; his once powerful body had turned into skin and bones, his mane hung in dirty, tangled clumps. His golden, deep eyes no longer shone with wild fire.