Spectacle seemed to delight
visitors but zoo has been criticised in the past for keeping animals in
‘woefully inadequate’ conditions
Staff and agencies
Wednesday 19 October 2016
16.00 BST Last modified on Wednesday 19 October 2016 17.34 BST
Visitors to a newly reopened zoo
in North
Korea have been flocking to a new attraction: a smoking chimpanzee.
According to officials at the
Central zoo in Pyongyang, which has been criticised for animal cruelty in the
past, the 19-year-old female chimpanzee Azalea, Dallae in Korean, smokes a pack
a day.
The chimpanzee can use a lighter
to light her own cigarettes, or spark up from a lit cigarette. The zoo has
insisted, however, that she does not inhale.
The spectacle, which would shock
animal rights campaigners, made visitors roar with laughter on Wednesday as the
chimpanzee sat puffing away. Her trainer seemed to be encouraging the smoking
and prompted her to touch her nose, bow thank you and do a simple dance.
The zoo is pulling in thousands
of visitors a day to see attractions ranging from elephants, giraffes, penguins
and monkeys to a hi-tech natural history museum.
NK News reported
North Korea has stocked the zoo with animals from all over the world, with many
of the deals being called into question by animal rights campaigners. The zoo
has also been criticised in the past for keeping animals in “woefully inadequate”
conditions.
Renovations at the zoo began in
2014 as part of efforts by the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, to
create leisure centres around the capital.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment
You only need to enter your comment once! Comments will appear once they have been moderated. This is so as to stop the would-be comedian who has been spamming the comments here with inane and often offensive remarks. You know who you are!