Azalea, the nineteen-year-old chain-smoking chimpanzee, smokes about twenty cigarettes in a day. Azalea is trained to light her own cigarettes and smokes more than a packet a day.
Her trainer throws a lighter in her cage and she does it like a pro. Millions of people come to see her and she has been a major attention in the zoo.
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While some people are really delighted to watch her, some people have taken it as an offense. Animal Legal defense fund has criticized the zoo by saying “making animals do unnatural and freakish things to attract gawkers”.
They also added that “SMOKING IS DANGEROUS TO AZALEA THE CHIMPANZEE AS IT IS TO HUMANS, AND YET HER ‘CARETAKERS’ FACILITATE HER HABIT.”
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People there argue that it sets a bad example for the children who visit the zoo, but the zoo in their defense said that the chimp is very safe and never inhales the smoke.
Watch the video of the chain smoker chimpanzee below: