Omega, a 12-year-old chimpanzee

Omega, a 12-year-old chimpanzee, is seen at a Brazilian sanctuary in Curitiba in the southern state of Parana November 16, 2010. Omega, who was hooked on cigarettes, was welcomed into a 108,000-square-foot ranch after spending the past eight years in a cage. Members of non-governmental organization Animals Lebanon found him at a 430-square-foot cage puffing on cigarettes to entertain visitors at a zoo in Ansar, according to media reports. Activists negotiated his release from the now deactivated zoo and last week managed to transfer him to a sanctuary Curitiba, where 23 other chimps and dozens of animals, including monkeys, deers, flamingos and several birds already live in.




Veterinarian Paulo Diniz Basteane talks with Omega, a 12-year-old chimpanzee, at a Brazilian sanctuary in Curitiba in the southern state of Parana November 16, 2010. Omega, who was hooked on cigarettes, was welcomed into a 108,000-square-foot ranch after spending the past eight years in a cage. Members of non-governmental organization Animals Lebanon found him at a 430-square-foot cage puffing on cigarettes to entertain visitors at a zoo in Ansar, according to media reports. Activists negotiated his release from the now deactivated zoo and last week managed to transfer him to a sanctuary Curitiba, where 23 other chimps and dozens of animals, including monkeys, deers, flamingos and several birds already live in.




Omega, a 12-year-old chimpanzee, reacts at a Brazilian sanctuary in Curitiba in the southern state of Parana November 16, 2010. Omega, who was hooked on cigarettes, was welcomed into a 108,000-square-foot ranch after spending the past eight years in a cage. Members of non-governmental organization Animals Lebanon found him at a 430-square-foot cage puffing on cigarettes to entertain visitors at a zoo in Ansar, according to media reports. Activists negotiated his release from the now deactivated zoo and last week managed to transfer him to a sanctuary Curitiba, where 23 other chimps and dozens of animals, including monkeys, deers, flamingos and several birds already live in.



Omega, a 12-year-old chimpanzee, is seen in a cage on his way to being transported from a zoo in Ansar village, southern Lebanon, to a sanctuary in Brazil November 8, 2010 in this handout picture released by Animals Lebanon, an animal rights organisation. Lebanese animal rights activists were shocked to learn Omega smoked cigarettes on a regular basis to entertain visitors and arranged for him to be evacuated to a sanctuary in Brazil where he is expected to lead a healthier lifestyle. Picture taken November 8, 2010.




In this June 10, 2010 photo released by animal rights group Animals Lebanon, a 12-year-old chimpanzee, smokes a cigarette in his cage in a zoo in the southern Lebanese village of Ansar. A 12-year-old chimpanzee was heading to a sanctuary in Brazil on Monday after animal rights workers discovered him smoking cigarettes to entertain visitors at a Lebanese zoo. Omega, who weighs around 132 pounds (60 kilograms), has never climbed a tree or seen other chimpanzees. But he often puffed cigarettes that zoo visitors threw in his cage. 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.


source: Daylife
photo: AP, Reuters