Ariel died Wednesday

Ariel, a paralyzed male lion who was fighting for his health  and was the focus of an Internet fundraising campaign and captured Brazilian media and world TV station's attention, died on Wednesday 27th of July 

Raquel Borges, Ariel's owner said on Ariel's Facebook page," Our beloved Ariel is gone. This is the saddest day of my life"

His Facebook was "liked" by more than 62, 500 people around the world. Ariel's death was the headline of Brazil's largest new portals and the highest trending item worldwide on Twitter

Ariel caught public and media's attention in Brazil & around the world

Thousands of animal lovers clicked on Ariel's page and started donating money for his food, his drugs and treatments. Ariel's story also became headlines in Daily Telegraph in Australia and Daily Mail in UK

A team of Israeli veterinary neurologists have been called for help

Hebrew University  veterinarians in Israel was contacted to help with Ariel's conditions

A team of veterinary neurologist were flied from Israel to give Ariel tests to find out what the 

degenerative desease it is. They were contacted because of their specialty with large animals. The test results were expected in late July

Their trip to Brazil was paid for by a Brazilian model who live in New York City, Graziela Barrett


A web page called Help The Lion was also set up by 22 years old a Brazilian law student at UNICAP and a Brazilian vegetarian, Christian Quirino Spoto to help expanding the network for donation in Ariel's treatments

A hydro-treadmill was also donated by Ariel's godmother, Eliana Michaelichen Bezerra, a Brazilian TV presenter

Raquel Borges, Arie's owner and Veterinarian Livia Pereira Dedicated their time and energy to Ariel's health

Veterinarian Livia has turned her home to a hospital to treat Ariel in hope that one day he will be able to use his four legs again. Both Livia Pereia and Raquel Borges have been spending a lot of time patiently with Ariel's treatments

After many test were done for Ariel's condition, it was found that he has a autoimmune disease. Pereira said for some unknown reason his white blood cells are attacking his healthy cells. A condition similar to Parkinson's and Guillian-Barre syndrome

A Brazilian doctor offered his help to Pereira and Borges for a blood-cleansing treatment.

When the campaign was initially launched in May it had less than  five followers and Pereira and Borges were not asking for donations. Soon after when they asked for help, they realized Ariel has captured many people's heart around the world

After the surgery treatment was not successful Ariel's keepers  turned to using acupuncture, hydrotherapy and physiotherapy treatment on him which didn't improved his conditions dramatically but still they didn't lose hope

With the raised donations from Facebook campaign Ariel was taken to Sao Paulo on Sunday 19th of June to be treated by the veterinarians from Israel

Ariel will be tested by MRI, CT scan and x-rays by Dr. Merav Shamir who is a lion's neurologist and one who has been working with a lion with similar conditions as Ariel

Keeper's have been grate-full to those animal lovers who have donated for Ariel's treatments

Baby Ariel

Ariel was born on June 18th, 2008 by cesarean section at Emauel Institue in Brazil. Ariel was a docile lion and because of that he grew up sleeping in his owners bed until he was 10 months old

He was cared for and loved with a lot of attention from people around him. He was a docile lion he used to be on Brazilian TV shows 

Campaign Launched for Ariel

A Facebook and Twitter campaign has been launched for Ariel to be able to walk again, the campaign is to raise money needed to treat the three years old, 310-pounds lion in Brazil, Ariel was perfectly fine until a year go. He is not able to use his four legs due to the paralysis that struck him since last year

Rauel Borges, Ariel's owner and Veterinarian Livia Pereira, said the $11,500 needed for treating Ariel has been donated by about 35,000 people who have clicked "like" button on Ariel's Facebook page

Pereira, looks after Ariel in her home in Sao Paulo in Brazil. Pereira  said Ariel is suffering from a degenerative disease which is affecting his medulla and his brainstem responsible for his motor functions