Smoking: not really a laughing matter, is it?

Cigarettes cause untold misery, disease and death. Nicotine addiction isn’t something one should ever encourage, condone or celebrate.

Unless, of course, you’re talking about a slug. With slugs it’s a different matter entirely.

This slug was spotted on the streets of Walthamstow this week by local resident Karen Staughton.

She saw the gastropod slouching along Church Hill Road, brandishing the fag with all the insouciance of a  young Brando, almost certainly ignorant of the decades of research illustrating the carcinogenic effects of tobacco.  

It’s a habit that seems to be spreading. Earlier this year a Mancunian magpie became a star on Twitter after being photographed with a cigarette:

And, on an entirely more depressing note, earlier this month we reported in the story of this chain-smoking chimpanzee, resident of a newly-renovated zoo in North Korea.

Azalea, a 19-year-old female chimpanzee, usually smokes 20 cigarettes a day at the zoo in the Pyongyang capital of Kim Jong-un' secretive state.             

The Associated Press (AP) witnessed the chimp even lighting her own cigarettes using a lighter tossed into her cage by a trainer.

The Animal Legal Defense Fund (ALDF), criticised the zoo for keeping the animals to ‘attract gawkers’.

“This exemplifies the problem with any captive wildlife displayed for profit,” said Carter Dillard, Director of Litigation for the ALDF. “They are made to do unnatural and freakish things to attract gawkers.

“The good news is that the civilised world is moving away from this, like the gradual elimination of orcas from places like Seaworld.”

Elisa Allen, Director PETA UK, said: “If we really needed any more proof that zoos are motivated by profit and not animal welfare, this is surely it.

“Smoking is as dangerous to Azalea the chimpanzee as it is to humans, and yet her ‘caretakers’ facilitate her habit – just for the sake of a few cheap laughs and more bodies coming through the gates.”