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Smoking orangutan being forced to quit after 10 years

Tori, an Indonesian primate, is being moved so she'll stop lighting up

Most 15-year-old chain smokers would get a stern talking from a parent or guardian and be forced to quit and now the same is true for one in Indonesia. Except Tori is not like most teens. She's been smoking for about a decade and is an orangutan.

The animal has been smoking cigarettes at the Indonesian zoo since she was about five and is now going to quit cold turkey.

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According to The Associated Press, zookeepers are going to move Tori away from visitors who throw lit cigarettes into her cage so they can snap photos of her acting like a human and smoking.

A mesh cover will soon cover Tori's cage and later she will be moved to a small island away from the public, according to the Daily Mail.

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The move is aimed to protect four endangered orangutans at the Taru Jurung Zoo.

Indonesian zoos have recently come under scrutiny following animal deaths. A giraffe died in March with a 18-kilogram ball of plastic in its stomach because it ingested trash thrown into its cage by visitors.

A smoking primate may seem crazy in Canada since only about 17 per cent smoke here, but in Indonesia about a third of the country, including 60 per cent of men, light up.

(CP photo)