Coming soon to a zoo near you? This from the Ananova news wire
Visitors to a zoo in eastern India have been banned from laughing after a state politician said he found it offensive.It happened after members of a local 'Laughter Club' visited the Sanjay Gandhi Botanical Garden and Zoo in Patna.
Laloo Prasad Yadav, the former chief minister of Bihar State and president of the ruling Rashtriya Janata Dal party, complained about the laughter.
Laughter clubs, groups of people who laugh loudly in public together to relieve stress, are a phenomenon in parts of India.
The politician became angry when he saw the group laughing while he was walking past the zoo director's office, reports Sify.com.
After ordering them to stop laughing he immediately issued instructions to a zoo official banning laughter inside the premises.
Mr Yadav said: "By cleaning their lungs through laughter, people were spreading their diseases to other people who come for a morning walk. Besides this kind of laughter also disturbed and frightened the zoo animals."
Members of the laughter club described the order as "autocratic".
Nutty, huh? I can imagine the gorillas would be quite upset to hear raucous laughter. And those nasty germs being shot into the air we breathe... GASP!
It's Del.icio.us!
Furl It!
