Friday Beer Blogging: Elephant Edition

Boy, when the story about Paris Hilton wanting to save beer drinking elephants in India came out earlier in the week, I was all set to use it as the basis of today's beer blogging. A problem cropped up along the way though: the story wasn't true and the Associated Press retracted it.

Well, I never let facts get in the way of a good beer blogging buzz, so I am reprinting a version of the story here in all its falseness.

Socialite Paris Hilton is spearheading a campaign to stop a herd of elephants killing themselves - after bingeing on alcohol. The hotel heiress was horrified to discover 40 of the animals were electrocuted after drinking rice-beer, which is brewed by locals in north-east India. And Hilton is now urging Indian residents to lock up their booze.

She says, "There would have been more casualties if the villagers hadn't chased them away. And four elephants died in a similar way three years ago. It is just so sad. The biggest problems are in Assam and Meghalaya. The elephants get drunk all the time. It is becoming really dangerous. We need to stop making alcohol available to them."

The AP retraction goes like this:

GAUHATI, India (AP) - In a Nov. 13 story, The Associated Press incorrectly reported that Paris Hilton was praised by conservationists for highlighting the problem of binge-drinking elephants in northeastern India. Lori Berk, a publicist for Hilton, said she never made any comments about helping drunken elephants in India.

Have a great weekend! And please don't feed the elephants Indian rice beer.