Circus trainers claim two of their elephants were saved from the deadly Siberian cold by vodka.  

Emergency ministry spokesman Alexander Davydov said that the elephants were in a trailer that caught fire outside the city of Novosibirsk, forcing trainers to take them out into the bitter cold before another truck arrived to deliver them to a warm gym at a local community college.

The Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reported that trainer Leonid Labo had the animals, aged 45 and 48, drink 10 liters (2.6 gallons) of vodka diluted in warm water –  and a veterinarian said later that only the tips of their ears had gotten frostbitten.

Although doctors and scientists say that alcohol can make humans feel warmer but in fact lowers the core body temperature, Novosibisk zoo director Rostislav Shilo told the Russian daily that the vodka saved the animals from frostbite and pneumonia, without harming or even intoxicating them. 

There are plenty of tales of animals finding some alcohol and getting tipsy. Those stories usually involve pilfered man-made beer or wine. There’s been little or no evidence of animals seeking out naturally fermented fruit in the wild until recently, when researchers recorded the first example of animals looking for a drink, in the Malaysian rain forest: the Pintailed Shrew and the Slow Loris. Some scientists believe that pachyderms like a snort, especially in India, where drunken, rampaging elephants have been documented for over a decade.  Source: www.ews.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3423881.stm