Man, you can’t make this stuff up. From the BBC:
An Asian elephant that became addicted to heroin after being fed bananas spiked with the drug is to return home after undergoing a detox programme.
The four-year-old animal, called Xiguang, received methadone injections for a year at five times the human dosage, state media said.
It was illegally captured by traders in 2005 in south-west China.
When police arrested the traders and freed the elephant, it was found to be suffering from withdrawal symptoms.
The elephant’s eyes kept streaming and he made continuous trumpeting noises, the Beijing News newspaper’s website reported.
Heroin withdrawal can make people angry, spastic and violently obsessed with getting that next fix, and causes: “sweating, malaise, anxiety, depression, priapism, extra sensitivity of the genitals in females, general feeling of heaviness, cramp-like pains in the limbs, excessive yawning or sneezing, tears, sleep difficulties (insomnia), cold sweats, chills, severe muscle and bone aches; nausea and vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, and fever.”
Asian Elephants (appropriately named Elephas maximus) are Asia’s largest land animals and weigh up to 14,000 pounds — a little more than five 2008 Honda Civics. They are very, very big.
Put the two together and suffice it to say I’ve got a truckload of respect for the devoted vets and zookeepers who looked after this irritable, uncomfortable, altogether pissed-off 14,000-pound elephant for an entire year in rehab.
Xiguang’s rehabilitation has inspired thousands of drug-addicted pachyderms across the globe, and has turned him into a poster-boy for elephant anti-drug programs worldwide, who’ve adopted the slogan “Just Say No to Heroin-Laced Fruit.”
That part isn’t true.
1 response so far ↓
1 Asher Vijay // Sep 10, 2008 at 7:54 pm
I wish it were true.
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