Cigarette-smoking chimpanzee in Lebanese zoo to be moved to Brazilian sanctuary

BEIRUT — 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, 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.

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.

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 430 square feet.

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.

Pamela Anderson tries to convince Orthodox lawmakers to back anti-fur bill in Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel — Former "Baywatch" star Pamela Anderson said Sunday she will try her powers of seduction while in Israel on an unlikely audience -- ultra-Orthodox Jewish lawmakers.

Anderson, an honorary director of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, is in Israel to participate in the local version of "Dancing With the Stars."

Her work for animals "has been really inspiring," she said. "I feel like I have actually done something."

An anti-fur bill has been put on hold in Israel over concerns by ultra-Orthodox leaders that it could impact production of the characteristic fur hats worn by some men from Hasidic sects on holidays and other festive occasions.

To combat growing secularization of Jews to European society in the 18th century, Hasidic Jews decided that their way of dress should remain intact and not be influenced by fashion. Descendants of these communities to this day wear the black hats and coats of that period, including, at times, fur hats.

Anderson called Israel a "progressive" country because it had no fur farms, and said that it can serve as "an example for the rest of the world."

PETA offers to help foot Lindsay Lohan's rehab bill if she goes vegan

Lindsay Lohan's recent court-ordered return to rehab was followed by reports that she was seeking financial assistance because she couldn't afford the cost of treatment at the Betty Ford Center.

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has stepped in with an offer to help -- if Lohan will agree to adhere to a vegan diet, that is. The Times' celebrity news blog Ministry of Gossip has the details:

If Lohan goes vegan for the entirety of her remaining rehab stint, PETA will chip in $10,000. The animal rights organization will throw in an additional $10,000 if she remains a vegan for a year afterward.

"As you know, a crucial part of any recovery is showing charity to others," PETA's Michelle Cho wrote in a letter to Lohan, who previously made the group's worst-dressed list in 2008 for wearing fur. "One way to do this is to be kind to animals, the Earth, and your own body. You'll never regret it." The group is also sending a vegan care-package of sorts to Lohan, including a Paul McCartney-narrated DVD about slaughterhouses called "Glass Walls" and a vegetarian/vegan starter kit.

"Lindsay Lohan is the most visible example of a real addict, and if she can conquer her addiction to meat and cheese, absolutely anyone can," said Ingrid Newkirk, PETA's president and co-founder.

RadarOnline.com quoted an unnamed source described as being close to Lohan as saying that she is "seriously considering the offer from PETA. There is thoughtful consideration about PETA's very generous offer. Lindsay loves animals, and looks at it as a 'win-win' since being a vegetarian is a healthier lifestyle that she is striving for."

RELATED PETA NEWS:
PETA supporters celebrate the group's 30th anniversary at Hollywood Palladium gala
'Octomom' Nadya Suleman unveils spay and neuter sign for PETA on her front lawn

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Lindsay Lohan leaves Beverly Hills Municipal Court after a probation violation hearing Oct. 22. Credit: Mario Anzuoni / Reuters

China issues new suggested practices for zoos following allegations of widespread animal cruelty

BEIJING — China has urged zoos to stop serving wild animal products and holding wildlife performances in an attempt to improve the treatment of tigers, bears and other animals amid concerns over widespread abuse in zoos and wildlife parks.

The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development posted the suggestions on its website Tuesday and said inspections would be carried out to see if zoos were complying.

Animal welfare groups have documented widespread abuse in Chinese zoos and wildlife parks, including animal neglect, beatings, and the illegal sale of wine or soup made from the bones of endangered tigers.

The Hong Kong-based animal welfare group Animals Asia Foundation released a report in August that said bears in Chinese zoos were regularly whipped and beaten with sticks, while elephants were prodded with metal hooks, and tigers and lions were defanged and declawed, causing them chronic pain.

Earlier this year, 11 rare Siberian tigers died at a wildlife park in China's frigid northeast and zookeepers there said they didn't have enough funding to feed or take care of them properly. Rights groups said the zoo might have been selling the tiger skins and bones on the black market.

Spanish party seeks to overturn Catalonia's recent ban on bullfighting

MADRID -- Recent legislation banning bullfighting in a region of Spain was challenged in court Thursday by a major political party.

Pio Garcia-Escudero, spokesman for the Popular Party, said the appeal to the Constitutional Court argues that legislators in the powerful northeastern region of Catalonia violated several articles of the Spanish Constitution. They include the right to attend cultural events, artistic liberty and rights of bullfighting businesses in the area, he said.

Catalonia's parliament banned bullfighting in July because of its alleged cruelty to animals. The ban takes effect in 2012.

Speaking for his conservative opposition party, Garcia-Escudero said that although Spain's regional governments had control over bullfighting, they could not prohibit it.

The Constitutional Court can take months or years to make decisions.

Bullfights, and the bull runs that often precede them, have become the focus of debate since Catalonia became the second region to ban such fights, after the Canary Islands in 1991.

The Popular Party has campaigned for nationwide protection of bullfighting.

RELATED BOVINE NEWS:
Spanish region of Catalonia endorses other bull-related events after banning bullfighting
Spanish party seeks to enshrine bullfighting as part of the country's cultural heritage

-- Associated Press

Photo: Bullfighter Jesus Millan performs during a bullfight at the El Pilar Fair in Zaragoza, Spain, on Oct. 12. Credit: Javier Cebollada / European Pressphoto Agency

North Dakota voters set to decide issue of fenced big-game hunting preserves

LISBON, N.D. — Butch and Deb Dick's lifelong dream was to open a big-game hunting preserve and after years of preparation, they expected to welcome the first customers to their southeastern North Dakota ranch this month.

Voters will decide next month whether to shut them down.

Measure No. 2 on the Nov. 2 general election ballot seeks to abolish fenced preserves where people pay to shoot big game such as deer and elk. Supporters of the measure say the practice is unethical because the animals can't escape. Opponents say it's free enterprise.

There are thousands of big-game breeding operations in the United States. Although it's not clear how many offer hunting, there's no federal law banning fenced hunting and a majority of states allow it.

"I think it comes down to property rights," said Butch Dick, 34, gazing from a ridge that overlooks his wooded and hilly Dragon Creek Ranch in the rugged Sheyenne River Valley eight miles west of Lisbon. Most of eastern North Dakota is flat farmland.

About a dozen of the state's more than 100 game preserves offer hunting for a fee. The cost of a hunt depends on the size of the animal, but some packages can run more than $10,000.

Valley Forge park officials are urged to use coyotes, rather than hunters, to control deer population

VALLEY FORGE, Pa. — An animal-rights group that opposes the use of hunters to cut the deer population in Valley Forge National Historical Park wants officials to consider using coyotes instead.

Friends of Animals opposes a plan to use sharpshooters to eliminate more than 80% of the Pennsylvania park's deer in the next four years. Last year, they sued to try to stop the hunts.

Now, the group has started a campaign called the Coyote Coexistence Initiative. They want park officials to consider encouraging natural predators rather than shooting the deer.

Park officials tell The Philadelphia Inquirer the proposal wouldn't work. They say the number of deer has to be cut from an estimated 1,277 to about 175 in the next four years.

Friends of Animals says it will seek an injunction to stop a hunt planned for next month.

RELATED WILDLIFE NEWS:
Sharpshooters employed to thin out the deer population around Maryland's Camp David retreat
'Do not feed the wildlife' signs installed in Griffith Park following coyote attacks

-- Associated Press

Photo: A deer bounds across the path at dusk in Valley Forge National Historical Park in 2001. Credit: Peter Doyle / Associated Press

PETA supporters celebrate the group's 30th anniversary at Hollywood Palladium gala

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals has been celebrating its 30th anniversary all year, but it really pulled out all the stops at its anniversary gala event at the Hollywood Palladium on Saturday night. The event, hosted by Alec Baldwin, included an awards ceremony that honored celebrities and other PETA supporters for their work.

PETA Humanitarian Award recipients included "Daily Show" correspondent Olivia Munn, who has been vocal in her opposition to animals performing in circuses; model and actress Joanna Krupa, who is active in the pet rescue movement and famously posed for PETA's controversial "Be an Angel for Animals" ad campaign; "Twilight" star Kellan Lutz, who appeared in a PETA ad about pet adoption alongside his own rescue dog; entertainer, guitarist and all-around fascinating person Charo, who has spoken out against bullfighting in her native Spain; and "Glee" star Lea Michele, who filmed a public service announcement about fur for PETA.

Another honoree, actress Anjelica Huston, was observed tearing up when a video showing animals rescued from abusive situations at factory farms was shown at the gala. But later in the evening, when she accepted her own Humanitarian Award for her work on behalf of great apes in the entertainment industry, she was in high spirits. "Chimps and humans share 94% of the same DNA, and you can see that in so many ways," she joked. "Chimps don't communicate verbally, but with odd vocalizations, hands gestures, and facial expressions -- like the cast of 'Jersey Shore.' "

See a full list of honorees at PETA's website and read more about the gala at The Times' celebrity news blog, Ministry of Gossip. (They've got a photo gallery, too.)

-- Lindsay Barnett

Photo: Alec Baldwin poses with Cheryl Hines at the gala. Credit: Jason Merritt / Getty Images

Decision to move chimpanzees from New Mexico research facility stirs debate about their future

A decision to move 186 chimpanzees from a southern New Mexico facility to Texas is pitting government officials and scientists against a coalition of elected officials and animal rights advocates, including New Mexico's governor and also famed primate researcher Dr. Jane Goodall.

The chimps have spent the past decade undisturbed by medical researchers. But the National Institutes of Health have decided to cut government costs by moving the animals to a San Antonio primate facility, where animal rights activists worry they'll be improperly poked, prodded and stabbed in the name of science.

Gov. Bill Richardson and others would prefer to see the chimps' current home -- a former biomedical research lab at Holloman Air Force Base -- converted into a chimpanzee sanctuary. After visiting the site Tuesday, the governor said the animals are in excellent health, and he suggested the New Mexico lab could instead become a behavioral research facility.

But the director of the Texas facility maintains opponents have it wrong. The chimps will have outstanding care and live in quality surroundings as they undergo testing that can include injections and, in some cases, the use of a needle to remove a small liver sample, he said.

"These are mostly clinical procedures that are also done with human beings," said Dr. John L. VandeBerg, director of the Southwest National Primate Research Center. "We are doing them with chimpanzees to develop drugs and vaccines that can be used in human subjects."

Spanish region of Catalonia endorses other bull-related events after banning bullfighting

MADRID — Lawmakers who banned bullfighting in Spain's Catalonia region this summer voted Wednesday to endorse other traditions that have been criticized as cruel to bulls, such as attaching burning sticks to their horns as they chase human thrill seekers.

The vote will only affect the Catalonia region of northeast Spain, but it addresses another manifestation of this country's timeless fascination with bulls and the testing of people's bravery with the snorting animals.

Besides watching the deadly duel of matador and bull, Spaniards run with bulls in Pamplona every year, spear them to death from horseback in another northern town -- neither are in Catalonia -- and cordon off town squares to let even children dodge feisty calves of the kind used to breed top-grade fighter bulls.

In July, Catalonia banned bullfighting on grounds of cruelty, becoming only the second Spanish region to do away with the centuries-old tradition, after the Canary Islands.

Wednesday's bill -- approved by a 114-14 vote, with five abstentions -- protects other bull-related traditions in Catalonia that activists find repulsive.