By Tim Friend For Mailonline
Published: 15:28 BST, 14 April 2019 | Updated: 15:35 BST, 14 April 2019
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Three lions rescued from 'Europe's worst zoo' are stranded in Albania – held in bare, tiled pens just a few metres square.
Twelve-year-old Zhaku and his eight-year-old sons, Boby and Lenci, are caught in a bureaucratic wrangle over documents allowing them to leave the country to start a new life.
Since October they have been held at Tirana Zoo after being released from a private animal park in southern Albania where they were malnourished and kept in shocking conditions.
The father Zhaku (pictured) aged 12, and his two sons Boby and Lenci, both eight, are caged
One vet described the small, filthy cages at the park in Fier, sixty miles from the capital, as the worst he had ever seen in Europe.
The owner denied cruelty but after reading of the animals' plight on Mail Online, Albania's tourism minister ordered the police to break in and rescue the lions along with ten other animals including a bear, waterbuck and deer.
The other animals have been found new homes but the lions are still stuck in Tirana Zoo which itself has a poor reputation and desperately needs improvement.
One vet described the small, filthy cages at the park as the worst he had ever seen in Europe
