Voytek, the drinking, smoking soldier bear -- will he get his memorial?
A campaign is afoot to build a memorial to Voytek, a soldier-bear who fought alongside the Polish army at the Battle of Monte Cassino, carrying ammunition. After the war, Voytek lived out his days in the Edinburgh Zoo, occasionally visited by his old army buddies who tried to slip him the cigarettes and beer he'd come to enjoy while serving in the army.
Link (Thanks, Grey!)When Polish forces were deployed to Europe the only way to take the bear with them was to "enlist" him.
So he was given a name, rank and number and took part in the Italian campaign.
He saw action at Monte Cassino before being billeted - along with about 3,000 other Polish troops - at the army camp in the Scottish Borders.
The soldiers who were stationed with him say that he was easy to get along with.
"He was just like a dog - nobody was scared of him," said Polish veteran Augustyn Karolewski, who still lives near the site of the camp.
(Image: Iranian.com)
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Cigarettes and b33r as bear necessities?
I knew it!
I say give him a memorial!
Friend sent a bunch of us the story from the BBC.
Here was my immediate response:
http://flickr.com/photos/murphyj/2220816104/
Thought it was a fitting tribute, even if the 'has a posse' meme has been done to death. Okay, maybe I was a little drunk last night.
All together now:
awwwwwwwwwww
There's a more detailed biography here; I love that the Company adopted a picture of him as their badge. (There's another pic of the badge here.) - that's the sort of thing I'd quite like on a t-shirt or something, actually. Vaguely military look, who couldn't love an anthropomorphised bear, and there's even a decent story behind it! =]
@4 evilterran
Second that t-shirt idea!
Wow, this is cooler than armored polar bears!
I LOVE this story. Animals are more human than some people. They just love (if they haven't been mistreated) they don't judge us, they just love us. Vortek you are simply the best. Everyone should know this story.
it's bad enough killing innocent animal bystanders in our wars, it's downright evil to involve them.
@Takuan:
(eyeroll)
@9
you can get an ointment for that
Or a fresh eyeball delivered to your hotel room.
What a lovely story,just a shame he ended up in Edinburgh Zoo after all that human contact.
Let a monument be built at the Scottish Parliament.
@Takun
It's downright evil to keep a cat.
Cats don't waterboard their prey... thier tortures do leave marks. And it's not like it ment anything for the cat - they just like to do it. My cat is 3yo, we got meadows in convinient vicinity and it knows exactly how to kill. Yet still - from time to time - it tortures captured mice.
Animals are not innocent. Natural life on Earth is extremaly cruel and vicious. Being on the top of the food chain, we see this creatures as fluffy little things they aren't. They do whatever they have to - or want to. Only difference is in power - our can change landscapes, their can only make some other species extinct.
Torture, evil,innocence, cruelty and viciousness are ours, not the animals. They kill, sometimes quick sometimes slow, they eat, sometimes they let someone else finish the meal. Yes, we are different. Better?
I don't think so.
Bottom line, we use them, eat them - at least we can leave them out of the worst things we do to each other.
Here's another bear drunk with vodka for geopolitical reasons: Mitrofan. A bear hunted by King of Spain Juan Carlos in the Russian region of Vologda. Reportedly local authorities had the bear drunk with vodka so the King could kill him more easily.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/10/20/wbear20.xml