Beirut: A 12-year-old chimpanzee found a sanctuary in Brazil after animal rights workers discovered him smoking cigarettes to entertain visitors at a Lebanese zoo.
Omega, who weighs around 60 kilograms, has never climbed a tree or seen other chimpanzees. But he often puffed cigarettes that zoo visitors threw in his cage.
"The chimp still regularly smokes ... if someone will throw him a cigarette he'd pick it up and go for it straight away," said Jason Meier, executive director for animal rights group Animals Lebanon.
Organisers of Omega's evacuation said it marked the first time a chimpanzee has been rescued in Lebanon, a country with virtually no animal rights protection laws.
In his younger years, Omega was used in one of the local restaurants to entertain people and was made to smoke cigarettes and serve water pipes to customers. After he grew stronger, he was locked up and taken to a zoo where for the past 10 years he has lived in a cage measuring 40 square metres.
Animals Lebanon has been pushing for Lebanon to join the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, and adopt laws that regulate the importation of primates. Lebanon, Iraq and Bahrain are the only Arab countries yet to sign the convention.
Chimpanzees and other highly endangered wildlife are regularly smuggled to the Middle East to be displayed in private zoos and hotels.
