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One popular attraction is its dog pavilion, which houses Shih Tzus and German shepherds.) (It has many more species than it did six decades ago.

The zoo reopened in July after a two-year-long hiatus, and now receives thousands of visitors each day, according to the Associated Press. At the time of its opening, according to the zoo's official history, the only animals exhibited were a pack of 50 badgers. North Korea built the Pyongyang Central Zoo in 1959, under a directive from Kim Il-sung. "How cruel to willfully addict a chimpanzee to tobacco for human amusement,"said PETA president Ingrid Newkirk in a statement to Time magazine.

North Korean women only smoke at a rate of 2 percent.)Īnimal rights advocates saw that as a weak defense and condemned the zoo for teaching the chimp to light up. (Smoking remains a popular habit among North Korean men, with nearly half – 46 percent – estimated to smoke daily by World Lung Foundation's Tobacco Atlas. Pyongyang Zoo officials said the chimpanzee, whose name when translated from Korean means Azalea, does not inhale the smoke. On Wednesday, an Associated Press photographer caught Dallae on camera as she ignited a fresh cigarette from a smoldering butt. "Her trainer seemed to be encouraging the smoking and prompted her to touch her nose, bow thank you and do a simple dance." She appears to have been taught to use a lighter. Īzalea is not the only animal at the zoo known for "less-than-ethical" habits, with other exhibits including a dog that can manipulate an abacus, basketball-playing monkeys, and a group of doves that perform a figure-skating routine.When she puffs on a cigarette, onlookers "roar with laughter," as the Guardian reported recently. The Animal Legal Defense Fund 's Director of Litigation has described the keeping and treatment of Azalea as part of a larger problem with displaying captive wildlife for profit, stating that "they are made to do unnatural and freakish things to attract gawkers". The Zoo has been criticized by PETA President Ingrid Newkirk, who stated that it was "cruel to willfully addict a chimpanzee to tobacco for human amusement" and that smoking was as dangerous to Azalea as it is to humans. Īzalea is also able to perform tricks like dancing, bowing, and touching her nose. Smoking is a widespread habit among men in North Korea, with approximately 45% of men smoking on a regular basis and 30% of men dying from tobacco-related illnesses. Azalea is popular with the zoo's visitors, many of whom find her funny. Azalea's trainers support her smoking, providing her with both supplies and encouragement. She is able to light her own cigarettes using a lighter and has also learned to light a cigarette by touching it to the end of a lit cigarette. She is best known for her ability to smoke cigarettes, a behavior that has garnered criticism from multiple animal rights organizations.Īzalea smokes about one pack of cigarettes a day, though she reportedly does not inhale when smoking. Azalea (known in Korean as Dallae) is a chimpanzee housed at the Korea Central Zoo in Pyongyang, North Korea.