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BEIJING: A tortoise that enjoys a good smoke has been discovered in
northeast China’s Jilin Province, a local newspaper reported.
The smoking tortoise is the pet of a Chinese man
surnamed Yun from Yongji County. He has kept the animal as a pet for
nearly four years, according to the City Evening News.
Yun, himself a smoker, teased the tortoise by
putting a cigarette butt into its mouth one day. To his surprise, it
smoked, the paper said. From then on, he often shared his cigarettes
with his pet.
“It seems to have become addicted,” Yun was
quoted as saying. “Whenever I smoke in front of it, it will stick
its head out of the water and fidget about until I give it the
stub.”
To prove his claim, Yun put a cigarette into the
tortoise’s mouth in the presence of the paper’s reporter and his
neighbors, said the report.
To everyone’s surprise, the animal finished
smoking the cigarette in less than four minutes, even faster than
most men do and seemed to be enjoying the process.
Tang Jingwen, the deputy secretary-general of
the Wildlife Conservation Society of Jilin City, said he was quite
surprised by the news.
He knew about monkeys who smoked out of
imitation of human beings, but had never heard of a tortoise
lighting up.
-- Xinhua
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