Heroin-addicted elephant leaves rehab

Posted by GregB on September 8, 2008 · Leave a Comment

A former drug-addicted elephant has been pronounced clean after a emerging from a three-year detox programme.

The four-year-old bull elephant, called either ‘Big Brother’ or ‘Xiguang‘, was captured in 2005 in southwest China by traders who used bananas spiked with heroin to control him.
After police arrested the traders and freed Xiguang a few months later, the elephant was confirmed to be suffering from withdrawal symptoms and sent to a wild animal protection centre in Hainan for rehab, Xinhua news agency said on Thursday.

A year of methadone injections at five times the human dosage had helped wean Xiguang off his addiction. “I am looking forward to meeting my friends on the outside at long last. Both Amy Winehouse and Pete Doherty have been good friends to me whilst in rehab. We shared a great deal together whilst inside and have bonded as friends. They are meeting up with me this evening and we are going to hit the town running.”