A Briton flown home from US captivity in Guantanamo Bay says conditions were so inhuman that animals in the prison camp were given better treatment than the detainees.
Mr Jamal al Harith (35) was the first of five men to go free on Tuesday shortly after the group arrived back to Britain, having been handed over to British custody by the United States. The others were released on Wednesday.
"They actually said that - 'You have no rights here'," Mr Harith, from Manchester, told the Daily Mirror. "After a while, we stopped asking for human rights - we wanted animal rights.
"In Camp X-Ray my cage was right next to a kennel housing an Alsatian dog. He had a wooden house with air conditioning and green grass to exercise on. I said to the guards, 'I want his rights' and they replied, 'That dog is a member of the U.S army'."
Held in captivity for two years, Mr Harith also said he was assaulted with fists, feet, knees and batons after refusing a mystery injection.
"One of them attacked me really hard and left me with a deep red mark from my backbone down to my knee," he told the newspaper. "I thought I was bleeding, but it was just really bad bruising.
"The whole point of Guantanamo was to get to you psychologically. The beatings were not nearly as bad as the psychological torture - bruises heal after a week - but the other stuff stays with you," Mr Harith said.
A further four Britons remain at the Guantanamo prison in Cuba. Washington says they are more dangerous than the five it decided to send home, who have all been released without charge.