TOM AND LOLA – HAPPILY EVER AFTER?
Tom, a baboon rescued in October ’05 from a street cage in Beirut, where he had spent most of his five years alone, was given a home at the Cefn-yr-Erw Primate Sanctuary in Wales in January 06. Within a week, in his new purpose-built quarantine accommodation, he was starting to play and building up a bond with the staff there. He was not, however, very happy with the attentions of the vet, but they managed to have him medically checked, microchipped and vaccinated. Not long after this, Joelle Kanaan and the members of the activist organization BETA in Beirut, learned of another baboon and several chimpanzees in appalling conditions. Jason Mier, the chimp expert based in Kenya, who had been part of the team which rescued and homed Tom, travelled to Beirut to confiscate the chimps. After one failed attempt and much frustrating work with lawyers, local authorities, and the police, they succeeded in having the baboon, a four year old female they named Lola, transferred to Cefn-yr-Erw. As J
