Turns out vodka can actually save your life, well, if you're an elephant in Siberia that is. Two circus elephants had to be evacuated into the below freezing conditions in the back end of frozen Russia after the trailer they were in caught fire, and while they were waiting for help to arrive, one of their trainers had the very bright (and very Russian) idea of warming up some vodka diluted with hot water water and dosing up the pair. Very lucky that they had 10 litres of vodka just hanging around now isn't it? Apparently the watered down mix didn't get the elephants drunk, but did help them ward off pneumonia and frostbite, with only the tips of their ears succumbing to the sub-zero conditions. The two elephants were then loaded onto a truck and taken to a gym at a local community centre to get warm, and one can only assume, to sweat out the booze before their next show.
