When we first met him, Diego was frozen in fear. His big eyes were cautiously following every movement we made. And even though he didn’t move, you could see that he was ready to defend himself in case we came anywhere closer to him.  

His past experiences must have taught him that humans can’t be trusted. They had transformed this mighty lion to a pale shadow of himself. Unfortunately, we don’t know the full details of exactly what happened to Diego before he was rescued but our experts noticed that he seems to be very nervous around new people. We can only assume what he had to endure but it is likely that he was abused in the past.

Diego was born in 2016 in the Czech Republic. He was rescued from private ownership in the Czech Republic, where he faced being sold for hunting. He was then rescued by a compassionate animal welfare activist and taken to a private big cat facility for temporary care. There Diego benefitted from an appropriate diet and correct vaccinations, but the plan was always to move him to a sanctuary. However, despite many efforts, Diego was unable to find a species-appropriate home where he can get the care he deserves – until now.

His new forever home will be our FELIDA Big Cat Sanctuary in the Netherlands, which is specialised in the care of traumatised big cats. Over the years, we have been able to help 23 rescued big cats recover under the expert care of the sanctuary’s staff and caretakers. Even though Diego is in good health, thanks to the animal welfare activist who rescued him and made sure he got an appropriate diet and vaccinations, he is still in need of a species-appropriate home and to overcome his trauma.

At FELIDA, Diego will have all the time he needs to settle into his new surroundings and will receive further vet checks and individual training and enrichment programmes. In the future, we hope to socialise him with lioness Manuschka who recently arrived at FELIDA so that both lions don’t have to spend their lives alone.

Stay tuned for updates about his life at his new forever home and how he will get on with Manuschka.