My grandmother took me to the circus once. I must have been about four or five, and whilst I can’t remember it, she tells me that after the first animal act was over, I begged her to let us leave. I’ll never support animals being in captivity or the circus, for this exact reason:

Meet Will, a lion who had spent the first 13 years of his life performing in a traveling circus and living a small cage. Then, in 2006, he was finally rescued and taken to Rancho dos Gnomos Santuário in Brazil.

Watch as this big cat turns into a playful kitten as he feels grass for the first time in his life *cue tears*.

Will got to spend five glorious years rolling in grass before he passed away from old age.

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.

Rancho dos Gnomos Santuário is an ecological sanctuary that rescues domestic, exotic and wild animals from the circus, cockfights, deforestation, burning, trafficking and the like.

Good work.

[Source: The Dodo]