Horrifying images have emerged from an infamous zoo in Indonesia dubbed the 'Zoo of Death,' showing a dead lion hanging in its cage.
Michael the lion's emaciated body was found tangled in steel cables used to protect keepers at the Surabaya City Zoo.
His death came 48 hours after a wildebeest corpse was discovered and following a long line of similar animal deaths.
With 43 deaths between July and September last year, Surabaya has been criticised for its horrific treatment of animals and called the world's cruellest zoo.
Among those which have died there previously is a giraffe that was found to have 20 kilograms of plastic in its stomach and a Sumatran tiger found to have a rotten digestive tract after being regularly fed meat laced with formaldehyde.
Nanik, an endangered female orang-utan, apparently suffered for weeks before dying at the tender age of 12 years old – a mere fraction of the more than 45 years that she could have lived in her natural habitat, the animal welfare group Peta told the Huffington Post UK.
The zoo still house some 3,500 animals.
Peta told HuffPost UK they're sure Michael the lion "would have hanged himself deliberately if he could have in order to have escaped the frustration of his life in captivity."
"It's time that Indonesian authorities shut down this hellhole and relocated the animals currently suffering in its enclosures to facilities where they can be cared for properly.
"Huffington Post readers can click here to demand an end to this cruelty," they added.
Zoo spokesman Agus Supangkat said the cause of death was being investigated, but reports have emerged that the lion's body was removed before police were able to examine it and cannot now be found.
"This is a very serious matter." said Rosek Nursahid, director of Pro Fauna Indonesia, an animal protection charity.
"We have been receiving calls from American and Australian tourists, telling us that they are going to highlight the issue in their respective countries. Furthermore, they will also encourage people to boycott Surabaya and East Java," he told United Press International.