According to "Alcohol poisoning, not avian flu, killed Romanian birds", when villagers in Romania discovered dead birds lying on the ground, they were worried that they might have died from avian flu. But after investigating, the veterinary officers found that the birds had died from alcohol poisoning after eating the left overs from the local wine-making.
And now I'm wondering: will the anti-alcohol groups add animal protection to their list of reasons for demanding that governments ban the sale and use of alcohol? Of course, it does remind us that alcohol is a strong drug. When people think of drug over-dose deaths, the drugs that come to mind are more likely to be heroin and other strong narcotics, but people do regularly die from alcohol over-doses, just like the poor birds. I hope they were at least happy being drunk before they died. I've also heard of elephants enjoying getting drunk from eating naturally fermented fruit. I believe this is sometimes a problem in some African countries. Elephants eat highly alcoholic fermented fruit, and when they get drunk, they cause a lot of damage rampaging around - a bit like drunken yobs after work on Friday night, I guess. Do Thai elephants do the same thing, or are they better behaved? Does Thailand have a law to ban elephants from drinking alcohol?
I suspect that most animals enjoy alcohol and all the other drugs that have always been so popular with human beings for thousands of years, although I don't think I've ever heard of animals having cultural traditions revolving around drug use the way that humans always have. I suspect that animals just enjoy their alcohol or other drugs on a more random basis, taking what they can get when they find it. But perhaps birds should not drink and fly; it's very upsetting for innocent Romanian villagers when they crash land on the ground. On the other hand, it was the villagers who left the alcohol out where innocent passing birds would be tempted to consume it, so perhaps the villagers are really the guilty party for supplying alcohol to immature creatures, like 19 year old citizens whose governments think they are too immature to be trusted.
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References
Also on the BBC News, " http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12158341 found in Armenia" reports that humans in Armenia, which is just across the Black Sea from Romania, were making wine some 6,000 years ago.
ReplyDeleteDid the ancient ancestors of the Romanian birds enjoy those ancient alcoholic leftovers?
The humans presumably did enjoy the wine.
References
'Oldest known wine-making facility' found in Armenia. (2011, January 11). BBC News. Retrieved January 12, 2011 from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12158341
The motive of the anti-alcohol groups, governments should ban the sale and use of alcohol because it’s harmful to animal. As evidence that this point seems correct, but clearly they are not related. The important point, which I suspect, is why the birds choose to eat something that they never consume before or what happen with the natural resource or what the quantity of percentage of alcohol in the left over wine-making the birds are in danger.
ReplyDeleteFor your question about Thai elephants, actually I will answer from guessing and seeing. We always feed elephants with banana and sugar can. It might be the reason of commercial statregy that elephant’s staff can earn money from selling banana and sugar can when tourists come to visit and see their show. And Thailand, Buddhist country, ban drinking alcohol for Thai that why Thai elephants never consume alcohol before or at least.