The lion, named Ala, is being kept in an enclosure at Jinniu Lake Safari Park in Nanjing, China, with people slamming the zoo for “starving” their animals.

The lion has become too weak to chew his food (Image: AsiaWire)

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A lion dubbed the “world’s saddest lion” looks like a walking skeleton as he’s pictured in her enclosure at a zoo in China. The animal, named Ala, can barely walk through his enclosure at the Jinniu Lake Safari Park in Nanjing, China. He has also become too weak to eat, with the zoo resorting to feeding him a liquid diet.

A clip – shared later on Douyin, China’s version of TikTok – shows the ultra-skinny lion wobbling down a walkway.

It caused outrage among viewers who accused the zoo of not taking proper care of the feeble feline.

One user said: “This is too much suffering. If you can’t afford to feed it, send it to a different zoo that can.

“Why let him suffer? It should have been left living in nature.”

The lion was seen pacing in his enclosure (Image: AsiaWire)

Another viewer added: “This zoo is too much, starving the lions like this.”

Zoo officials later claimed that the lion is so old he can no longer chew his food, reports The Sun.

They claim that the animal is 25 years old and would be 80 if he were human.

Officials say he is fed a special diet of liquid protein and small cuts of meat and is watched over by specially trained vets and keepers in a private cage.