INSIDE:

NEWS/STORIES/ARTICLES
Book Reviews
Columns/Opinion/Cartoon
Films
International
National

NW/Local
Recipes
Special A.C.E. Stories

Sports
Online Paper (PDF)

CLASSIFIED SECTION
Bids & Public Notices

NW Job Market

NW RESOURCE GUIDE

Archives
Consulates
Organizations
Scholarships
Special Sections

Upcoming

The Asian Reporter 19th Annual Scholarship & Awards Banquet -
Thursday, April 20, 2017 

Asian Reporter Info

About Us

Advertising Info.

Contact Us
Subscription Info. & Back Issues

 

 

ASIA LINKS
Currency Exchange

Time Zones
More Asian Links

Copyright © 1990 - 2016
AR Home

 

 
 
DOWNLOAD The Asian Reporter | CONTACT US: News : Advertise : General
HOME NEWS : Northwest NEWS : National NEWS : International
Arts & Entertainment
Columns
Classifieds
Asian Reporter
Resources
 
NEWS: Northwest | National | International

 
 

MONKEY ON HER BACK. Tori, a 15-year-old orangutan, smokes a cigarette inside her cage at Taru Jurug Zoo in Solo, Central Java, Indonesia. Zookeepers say they plan to move Tori away from visitors who regularly throw lit cigarettes into her cage so they can watch and photo- graph her puffing away and flicking ashes on the ground. (AP Photo)

From The Asian Reporter, V22, #14 (July 16, 2012), page 20.
 
Indonesia to help smoking orangutan kick the habit

The Associated Press

JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Tori is a teenager with a bad habit. The 15-year-old orangutan has been smoking cigarettes at an Indonesian zoo for a decade, but she’s about to go cold turkey.

Zookeepers say they plan to move Tori away from visitors who regularly throw lit cigarettes into her cage so they can watch and photograph her puffing away and flicking ashes on the ground.

The primate mimics human behavior, holding cigarettes casually between her fingers while taking long drags and blowing bursts of smoke out her nostrils to the delight of visitors.

Taru Jurug Zoo director Lili Krisdianto said the move was aimed to protect four endangered orangutans at the 35-acre zoo in the Central Java town of Solo.

Results of a medical test are expected to determine how much Tori’s smoking has affected her health, said Hardi Baktiantoro of the Borneo-based Center for Orangutan Protection, which is helping to coordinate the intervention. A mesh cover will initially be placed over Tori’s cage, and later she will be moved to a small island away from the public, he said.

Several Indonesian zoos have come under scrutiny following animal deaths, including a giraffe that died in the long-troubled Surabaya Zoo in March with an 40-pound ball of plastic in its stomach after years of ingesting trash thrown into its enclosure by visitors.

Indonesia is also one of the last remaining countries where tobacco companies face few restrictions on selling, advertising, and promoting products that have long been banned elsewhere.

More than 60 percent of all men light up and a third of the country’s entire population smokes.


Return to International News Page