2010-02-27 04:46:49
Fri Feb 26, 11:23 am ET
MOSCOW (Reuters) 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.
It added he has now been transferred to the city of Kazan, about 500 miles east
of Moscow, for rehabilitation treatment.
(Reporting by Tanya Ustinova, writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman)