Omega a 12-year-old chimpanzee

Jason Meier, left, executive director for animal rights group Animals Lebanon, takes last pictures of Omega a 12-year-old chimpanzee after he woke up from tranquilizer injection that was given to him to move him to a new cage to be transported from Beiurt to a sanctuary in Brazil, at a zoo in the southern Lebanese village of Ansar on Monday, Nov. 8, 2010.

Omega In his younger years was used in one of the local restaurants to entertain people and was made to smoke cigarettes and serve water pipe to customers.



After he grew stronger, he was locked up and taken to a zoo where he has lived in a 40 square meter cage for the past 10 years. Organizers of Omega's evacuation say it marks the first time a chimpanzee has been rescued in Lebanon, a country with virtually no animal rights protection laws.


Omega is being sent to a sanctuary in Brazil Monday after being rescued from a zoo in south Lebanon.


Omega, a 12-year-old chimpanzee, bare his teeth through his cage in a zoo in the southern Lebanese village of Ansar on Monday, Nov. 8, 2010.


Jason Meier, executive director for animal rights group (Animals Lebanon), and An Pas, a veterinarian from Belgium, in the background, inject Omega with a tranquilizer at a zoo in the southern Lebanese village of Ansar on Monday, Nov. 8, 2010.


source: Daylife
photo: AP photo