Moment caged lion touches grass for first time in 13 years
The moment a lion that was caged for 13 years felt grass beneath its feet was was caught on camera - and has just been released for the first time.
The moving and poignant moment Will the circus lion was let out of his cage after being rescued by Ranchos dos Gnomos Santuario in Brazil was taken back in 2006.
But the ranch has only just released footage of the moment Will was let out of the cage he was kept in for more than a decade while being forced to perform in a circus across America.
Will immediately starts running his paws through the earth with uncontained excitement for something he should have been doing all his life.
Will sadly passed away in 2011 of old age, but he died a "happy lion".
Sanctuary founder Marcos Pompeo told The Dodo: "He had five years of tranquility before he died. Here he had the opportunity to interact with other lions. He loved to lie in grass and look at the sky.
"He was a very happy lion."
The ranch's website reads: "In the past 24 years we offer support to Brazilian official entities IBAMA (Brazilian Institute of Environment and Renewable Natural Resources), Civil Police, Environmental Military Police, Federal Police, Civil Defense, and the Departments of Environment.
"We spend 24 hours a day rescuing domestic, exotic and wild animals from apprehensions and rescues in abuse or environment crime situations (circus, cockfight, deforestation, burning, trafficking, ritual, abandon, fur industry, etc.)
"At the present time we shelter in our headquarters about 230 animals (lions, jaguars, sloths, deer, macaws, parrots, monkeys, otters, dogs, cats, and more)."
But the shelter is running out of space and needs your help to move to a bigger plot.
Find out more here.
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