"Here we have animals that are lame, missing limbs, blind, cross-eyed, disabled, some even raped. They come to us malnourished, wounded, burned, stabbed, with gunshots," said Torres, 47, who relies on donations and her own modest teacher's salary to run the facility in a poor neighborhood in the southern city of Cali.

Torres said her work rehabilitating animals began more than a decade ago when a friend gave her an owl that had been kept as a pet. Later, when she asked her students to bring their pets to school, she realized many families illegally kept wild fauna from Colombia's biologically diverse jungles in their homes.

The number of animals under her care grew, and today Jupiter is one of some 800 recovering at Villa Lorena — everything from burned peacocks and limbless flamencos to blind monkeys and mutilated elephants.

Others were rescued from cruel treatment by owners. One mountain lion kept illegally as a pet had its two front legs cut off by its owner after it clawed a family member's face.

Torres said that of all the animals she has cared for, she is proudest of having rescued Yeyo, a now-deceased spider monkey who had suffered violent, drunken beatings at the hands of an alcoholic owner.

"The monkey would scream every time it was beaten, until one day the police came and found the wall covered in blood," she said. "We cried with anger when we heard how it had been treated."

Two veterinarians worked around the clock and saved Yeyo from death, though it lost an eye and its teeth from the abuse. But Yeyo remained terrified of people, cowering in the corner of the cage at the sound of footsteps, she said.

Torres said she opposes exhibiting animals in circuses and has therefore kept her shelter closed to the public.

"We want the animals to live in peace," Torres said. "All their life they were shown at circuses and shows — this is a paradise where they can finally rest."