Omega was a waiter and used to serve customers in a low quality bar somewhere in the south of Lebanon. From this place he ended up in an iron and concrete cage in a zoo that seemed the reception of hell. There he had been addicted to tobacco, which used to be throwned by the visitors so they could laugh and humiliated him even more.

Jason Meier found him, as a gift of destiny. Omega offered his hand to him through the fence and saw in him a God’s sender, someone whom he did not believe that still exist in this world of non-feelings humans. Jason, executive of NGO Animals Lebanon, started to do what he could to hind a home for that being, who was lost inside human insanity.

A light in the end of tunnel appeared when his friend Gerard de Nijs told him about GAP Project and Brazil. Since then all the zoos had closed their doors. A first message was sent to us and we asked for details and photos. Anami Conservationist Institute, which recently had received two chimpanzees from Israel, open its generous doors to that lonely young primate, who started to believe again in life and in human compassion.

For several months, all the bureaucracy was attended and Ibama acted as a entity of a country that appreciates biodiversity, and has the richest of the world, and that could not deny to help an African primate and a country like Lebanon, who is delayed in termos of animal protection.

Omega is already in Brazilian territory and in a few hours will be at his final destiny: Great Primates Sanctuary of Paraná, one of the best of the world, where Anita and Milan Starostik dedicate a major part of their lives to take care of little bit more of 20 chimpanzees and hundreds of other animals rescued from torture on circuses and zoos.

The zoo in Lebanon was closed due to mistreating, as many others that exist round the world, and other animals did not find their destiny yet. Maybe Omega can be the inspiration to other centers to offer shelter for those who stayed behind: seven monkeys, one hyena and several birds.

Omega is in his way to heaven. Dr. Miguel Vaudano, from GAP, was the first one able to see him, inside his cage in the airport. He will have to forget his addiction to cigarettes, caused by humans, and should learn Portuguese. This chimpanzee is a survival, like several of his brothers, and is open to live and be normal, running away the depression and bad feelings that that hell captivity generated, which has already been vanished of his life.

The chimpanzees of all Brazilian sanctuaries welcome Omega!

(Written in the first hours of Wednesday November 10, 2010)

Dr. Pedro A. Ynterian
President, GAP Project International

Related news: