Azalea (chimpanzee)

Last updated
Azalea
Born1996 (age 2728)
Nationality North Korean
Other namesDallae
Occupation Korea Central Zoo performer
Known forSmoking cigarettes

Azalea (known in Korean as Dallae) is a chimpanzee housed at the Korea Central Zoo in Pyongyang, North Korea. She is best known for her ability to smoke cigarettes, a behavior that has garnered criticism from multiple animal rights organizations.

Contents

Smoking

Azalea smokes about one pack of cigarettes a day, [1] though she reportedly does not inhale when smoking. [2] She is able to light her own cigarettes using a lighter and has also learned to light a cigarette by touching it to the end of a lit cigarette. [1] Azalea's trainers support her smoking, providing her with both supplies and encouragement. Azalea is popular with the zoo's visitors, many of whom find her funny. [1] Smoking is a widespread habit among men in North Korea, with approximately 45% of men smoking on a regular basis. [2] [3]

Azalea is also able to perform tricks like dancing, bowing, and touching her nose. [1]

Criticism

The Zoo has been criticized by PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, who stated that it was "cruel to willfully addict a chimpanzee to tobacco for human amusement" and that smoking was as dangerous to Azalea as it is to humans. [4] [5]

The Animal Legal Defense Fund 's Director of Litigation has described the keeping and treatment of Azalea as part of a larger problem with displaying captive wildlife for profit, stating that "they are made to do unnatural and freakish things to attract gawkers". [5]

Azalea is not the only animal at the zoo known for "less-than-ethical" habits, with other exhibits including a dog that can manipulate an abacus, basketball-playing monkeys, and a group of doves that perform a figure-skating routine. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cigarette</span> Small roll of cut tobacco designed to be smoked

A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opposite end. Cigarette smoking is the most common method of tobacco consumption. The term cigarette, as commonly used, refers to a tobacco cigarette, but the word is sometimes used to refer to other substances, such as a cannabis cigarette or an herbal cigarette. A cigarette is distinguished from a cigar by its usually smaller size, use of processed leaf, and paper wrapping, which is typically white.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tobacco smoking</span> Practice of burning tobacco and breathing the resulting smoke

Tobacco smoking is the practice of burning tobacco and ingesting the resulting smoke. The smoke may be inhaled, as is done with cigarettes, or simply released from the mouth, as is generally done with pipes and cigars. The practice is believed to have begun as early as 5000–3000 BC in Mesoamerica and South America. Tobacco was introduced to Eurasia in the late 17th century by European colonists, where it followed common trade routes. The practice encountered criticism from its first import into the Western world onwards but embedded itself in certain strata of a number of societies before becoming widespread upon the introduction of automated cigarette-rolling apparatus.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cheeta</span> Fictional character

Cheeta is a chimpanzee character that appeared in numerous Hollywood Tarzan films of the 1930s–1960s, as well as the 1966–1968 television series, as the ape sidekick of the title character, Tarzan. Cheeta has usually been characterized as male, but sometimes as female, and has been portrayed by chimpanzees of both sexes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oliver (chimpanzee)</span> Chimpanzee falsely promoted as a chimpanzee-human hybrid

Oliver was a former "performing" chimpanzee once promoted as a missing link or "humanzee" due to his somewhat human-like appearance and a tendency to walk upright. Despite his somewhat unusual appearance and behavior, scientists found that Oliver was not a human-chimpanzee hybrid.

The Korea Sogyong Trading Corporation is a North Korean company that exports carpets and manufactures cigarettes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prevalence of tobacco use</span> Percentage of population smoking tobacco

Prevalence of tobacco use is reported by the World Health Organization (WHO), which focuses on cigarette smoking due to reported data limitations. Smoking has therefore been studied more extensively than any other form of consumption.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smoking</span> Practice of inhaling a burnt substance for psychoactive effects

Smoking is a practice in which a substance is combusted and the resulting smoke is typically inhaled to be tasted and absorbed into the bloodstream of a person. Most commonly, the substance used is the dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which have been rolled with a small rectangle of paper into an elongated cylinder called a cigarette. Other forms of smoking include the use of a smoking pipe or a bong.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korea Central Zoo</span> Zoo in Pyongyang, North Korea

The Korea Central Zoo, also referred to as the Pyongyang Central Zoo, is the national zoo of North Korea. It is located near Taesŏngsan mountain in downtown Pyongyang. The zoo has over 5,000 wild animals, comprising a total of 650 species, and covers an area of roughly one square kilometre. It was reportedly established in April 1959 at the instruction of Kim Il Sung.

The DeYoung Family Zoo is a zoo that opened to the public in 1990. It is open yearly from May until the end of October. It is located in Wallace, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, United States, about 15 miles (24 km) north of Menominee. The zoo is owned by Bud DeYoung and Carrie Cramer. The facility has many exotic felines, and provides visitor interactions, as well as baby animals to pet and bottle feed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Travis (chimpanzee)</span> Chimpanzee known for attacking a friend of his owner

Travis was a male chimpanzee who was raised by and lived with a human family. On February 16, 2009, Travis attacked and mauled his owner's friend in Stamford, Connecticut, blinding her, severing several body parts, and lacerating her face, before he was shot and killed by a responding police officer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tobacco in the United States</span>

Tobacco has a long cultural, economic, and social impact on the United States. Tobacco cultivation in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1610 lead to the expansion of British colonialism in the Southern United States. As the demand for Tobacco grew in Europe, further colonization in British America and Tobacco production saw a parallel increase. Tobacco use became normalized in American society and was heavily consumed before and after American independence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smoking in Indonesia</span>

There are approximately 57 million smokers in Indonesia, among a population of 273 million people. Around 63% of men and 5% of women report smoking, equating to 34% of the population. The majority, 88% of Indonesian smokers, use clove-flavoured kreteks. Kretek manufacturers directly employ over 180,000 people in Indonesia and an additional 10 million indirectly. Indonesia is the fifth largest tobacco market in the world, and in 2008 over 165 billion cigarettes were sold in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chimpanzees' tea party</span> Obsolete form of public entertainment

The Chimpanzee tea party was a form of public entertainment in which chimpanzees were dressed in human clothes and provided with a table of food and drink.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Animals and tobacco smoke</span> Exposure of animals to tobacco smoke

Animals are exposed to tobacco smoke and other cigarette by-products through their use as experimental subjects and through contact with smokers, as in the case of pets in houses where smoking takes place.

Smoking in South Korea has decreased overall for both men and women in the past decades. However, a high prevalence of tobacco use is still observed, especially with the rise of novel tobacco products such as e-cigarettes and heat-not-burn tobacco products. There are socioeconomic inequalities in smoking prevalence according to gender, income, education, and occupational class. Advocates call for measures to reduce the smoking rates and address smoking inequalities using a combination of monitoring and tobacco control policies. These measures include significant price hikes, mandatory warning photos on cigarette packs, advertising bans, financial incentives, medical help for quitting, and complete smoking bans in public places.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Smoking in North Korea</span> Overview of smoking in North Korea

Tobacco smoking is popular in North Korea and culturally acceptable among men, but not for women. As of 2014, some 45% of men are reported to smoke daily, whilst in contrast only 2.5% of women smoke daily, with most of these being older women from rural areas. Smoking is a leading cause of death in North Korea, and as of 2010 mortality figures indicate that 34% of men and 22% of women die due to smoking-related causes, the highest mortality figures in the world. There are tobacco control programs in North Korea, and although smoking was not prohibited in all public spaces, the smoking rates have declined since their peak in the 2000s.

The 1950 Wynder and Graham Study was conducted by Ernest Wynder and Evarts Graham and was entitled "Tobacco Smoking as a Possible Etiologic Factor in Bronchiogenic Carcinoma: A Study of Six Hundred and Eighty-Four [684] Proved Cases". It was published on May 27, 1950. It was a case-control study to determine the relationship between various external factors and the development of bronchogenic carcinoma. The study concluded that long-term tobacco usage contributes to the onset of lung cancer, as an overwhelming majority (96.5%) of the men with the disease were classified as moderate to heavy smokers for an extended period of time, compared to a lower percentage of the general hospital population control group.

Jimmy (1952-1968) was a male chimpanzee and animal actor, trained by actor and magician John Calvert. He performed in the 1956 film Dark Venture, alongside Calvert. Jimmy was also featured in Calvert's magic shows in the United States, and onboard his luxury yacht throughout Asia and Australia. He died of a heart attack at the age of 16 at the Perth Zoo.

Sarah Nathalie Evans was an English businesswoman and conservationist with a particular interest in primates. In 1963 she co-founded the Twycross Zoo, Leicestershire. She began her career as a dog breeder and pet shop owner before merging her business with that of rival Molly Badham. The pair kept primates in their shared flat before moving, in 1954, to a larger house in Hints, Staffordshire where they established the Hints Zoological Gardens. Evans and Badham trained their chimpanzees to act out tea parties, which was noticed by the Brooke Bond tea company, who contracted the animals for a series of television advertisements for the PG Tips brand. After outgrowing Hints the pair moved their collection to Twycross, Leicestershire where they developed the largest primate collection outside of Japan. The Twycross Zoo became the first in the United Kingdom to breed colobus monkeys and bonobos and is now recognised as the World Primate Centre.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Meet Azalea the smoking chimp, new star at North Korea Zoo". NBC News. Associated Press. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 Simon, Johnny. "The star of the Pyongyang zoo is a chain-smoking chimp". Quartz. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  3. Guarino, Ben. "North Korea's newest zoo attraction is a chimpanzee trained to smoke cigarettes". Washington Post. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  4. Katz, Andrew. "PETA Isn't Happy About That Smoking Chimp in North Korea". Time. Retrieved 18 September 2020.
  5. 1 2 Molloy, Mark (19 October 2016). "Chain-smoking chimp Azalea becomes 'gawker' attraction at North Korea zoo". The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 September 2020.