An Orangutan Has One Cigarette and Animal Rights People Lose Their Shit
Source – A video showing an orangutan smoking a cigarette has gone viral — and sparked international anger toward a controversial zoo’s alleged mistreatment of animals.
The video was shot by a visitor Sunday at Indonesia’s Bandung Zoo, which is about 90 miles southeast of the capital, Jakarta. It captured a young man taking a few puffs from a cigarette and tossing it, still lit, into an open-air enclosure.
That’s when the orangutan — a 22-year-old Bornean named Odon — picked up the cigarette and started to inhale it, drawing laughter from onlookers.
But animal rights activists didn’t find it funny. They condemned the visitor’s alleged carelessness and the zoo’s apparent lack of supervision and education against such acts. …
Meanwhile, about 1 million people have signed up to a Change.org petition to “Shut down the Bandung Zoo now!”
I’m not about to come out in support of throwing things at zoo animals, but this is what the world is freaking out about? Odon taking a few drags off a cigarette? This is enough to get a million animal rights people to want the Bandung Zoo shut down permanently, throwing hundreds of people and God knows how many animals out of work and onto the streets?
Did these activists learn nothing from Harambe? Life as a zoo ape sucks. Anything that breaks up the monotony of sitting there getting stared at and photographed all day and listening to tourists make orangutan noises at you looking for a reaction is welcome. Whether that’s having a human toddler fall into your enclosure or a few puffs of sweet, sweet nicotine. Give Odon a break and let him enjoy a smoke break in peace.
To be clear, I am not a cigarette guy. I enjoy premium cigars just often enough to not have to pay the smoker premium on my Chernin health plan. Yet I admit it’s a disgusting habit. But I’m not conducting this War on Smokers either. As far as I’m concerned, if you’re a grown adult homonid you have the right to do whatever you want with your lungs, be that outside a bar or in your ape enclosure. I’m not going to judge Odon or the guy who shared his Marlboro with him for trying to break up the boredom of zoo life. Besides, it’s not like Odon is going to develop a habit and be running out to the gas station for a carton once a week. And if he had say, vision problems or was dealing with anxiety, these same activists who want the zoo put out of business would be demanding they give him medicinal marijuana. So relax, hypocrites. And find something real to worry about.