Award-winning news photographer Roger Allen had often taken animal photos, but never grasped how badly humans can mistreat other sentient beings.

Everything changed for him when he met Mely, an orangutan that had been shackled all its adult life to the verandah of a riverside house in remote Borneo. 

She was drained of life but had enough grace to reach out one hand to him. He reached back, they touched, and in an instant he was converted into an impassioned animal-rights campaigner.

In this stunning book of colour photographs, Roger documents the dramatic rescues he has brought to the world’s attention – of tigers, lions, rhinos, dogs and bears – as well as, in many cases, their happy outcomes.