Beer-Drinking, Smoking Chimp Sent to Rehab

From MSNBC:

A Russian chimpanzee has been sent to rehab by zookeepers to cure the smoking and beer-drinking habits he has picked up, a popular daily reported on Friday. An ex-performer, Zhora became aggressive at his circus and was transferred to a zoo in the southern Russian city of Rostov, where he fathered several baby chimps, learned to draw with markers and picked up his two vices. “The beer and cigarettes were ruining him. He would pester passers-by for booze,” the Komsomolskaya Pravda paper said.

Check it out.

One has to wonder why anyone would give cigarettes and beer to a chimp (please hold disparaging comments about how this might apply to yours truly to a minimum). I’m sure folks thought it was funny at the time, but this isn’t funny. It’s sad.