In kinda-funny-til-you-really-think-about-it (then-it-gets-really-sad) news, a young Asian elephant, Xiguang, has recently returned home to China after undergoing three years of drug rehab.
Yes, this is for real.
Xiguang became addicted to heroin during a stint laboring for smugglers along the China-Burma border, the AP reports. After a lengthy course of methadone treatments, he has apparently fully recovered.
I’d really like to make a crack about Just Saying No at this point, but for some reason Xiguang’s story touched me, and I don’t have the jokes in me.
Maybe that’s because elephants are such amazing, dignified, graceful creatures; I have trouble understanding how someone could abuse them this way.
Welcome home, Xiguang, and stay clean.
Eva Holland
Eva Holland is a freelance writer, Senior Editor of World Hum and a longtime contributor to the Matador community. She lives in Canada’s Yukon Territory and blogs about Alaska and Yukon travel at Travelers North.
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