Last month I write to Terri Irwin, wife of the legendary 'Crocodile Hunter' - the late Steve Irwin.
My letter below is really self explanatory.
What I don't understand is: why it is taking so long to get a relatively simple reply from Terri? Why would she allow herself and the reputation of her family to be associated with a government that PERMITS 2500 - 3000 orangutans to be killed every year? Let there be no doubt - the government of Indonesia continues to sell off rainforest's inhabited by orangutans, to palm oil and logging companies - often one and the same thing.
How can you help us get an explanation from Terri? Please can you ask her why it is she has not yet publicly dissociated herself from the orangutan killers? Maybe if enough of us write, it will get her attention. Please email Terry at: info@australiazoo.com.au
My emailed letter to Terri:
From: naturealert.org [mailto:sw@naturealert.org] Sent: Sunday, 27 July 2008 10:09 PMTo: info@australiazoo.com.auSubject: FAO Terri IrwinImportance: High
Dear Terri
I was wondering if you were aware that the government of Indonesia was using your name in defence of their orangutan conservation efforts?
The thing is, the government is making no effort to save orangutans, quite the opposite in fact.
In a letter from Indonesian Embassy they include:
" Terri Irwin, the wife of the late Steve Irwin, appreciates and has acknowledged the efforts that the Indonesian Government is conducting to save orangutans. Her statements have shown this kind of leadership Indonesia is taking to save endangered species. She believes that through this effort, Indonesia is making an enormous contribution in saving the earth."
Based on all my visits to Indonesia, specifically Borneo, including two this year, I can find no evidence of the Indonesian Government attempting to save orangutans, let alone the earth. Even the government admits to 'losing' about 3000 orangutans a year for the last 25 years (note the consistency), so I think by associating yours and Steve's name with this unfolding orangutan disaster the Indonesian Government is doing you no favours.
If you would like to set the record straight I will be only too pleased to add whatever you write, to my Blog http://naturealert.blogspot.com/
Several months ago I sent you in the post details of the orangutan situation in Indonesia, but did not receive a reply, not even an acknowledgement, which left me disappointed.
I do hope for the sake of the orangutans you will correct the Indonesian government.
Many thanks.
Sean Whyte
CEO
Nature Alert
www.naturealert.org
The reply received - the writer did not declare his/her name:
From: Info [mailto:info@australiazoo.com.au] Sent: 28 July 2008 03:51To: 'naturealert.org'Subject: RE: FAO Terry Irwin
Dear Sean.
Thank you for your correspondence. Your email has been forwarded to the appropriate department for further consideration and assistance. You will be contacted as soon as possible and we thank you very much for your patience during this process.
Kind Regards.
International Correspondent
Australia Zoo
PH: 54 36 2000
FAX: 54 94 8604
Email: info@australiazoo.com.au
Steve Irwin Day November 15- Steve Irwin was one man. One man can make a difference. YOU can make a difference.
Steve Irwin Day on November 15 will be a day for remembering the one and only Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin. The day will represent the many things Steve was passionate about; family, wildlife and FUN. You can get involved in a number of ways including visiting Australia Zoo for an action packed day, having a Backyard Campout or donning your khakis for Khaki Day. All proceeds raised from these activities will go to Australia Zoo Wildlife Warriors Worldwide. Visit our website, file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/azoo/Application%20Data/Microsoft/Signatures/www.australiazoo.com.au to see how you can get involved!
Since this reply we have exchanged two more emails and the Zoo continues to ask me to be patient. But when 50 - 60 orangutans are being killed every single week, at least 150 have lost their lives since I first wrote to Terry.
WILL YOU PLEASE WRITE - TODAY? It need only be a brief note.
The address is: info@australiazoo.com.au
Abuse and humiliation of orangutans stopped?
Good news. From March 29 2010 the use of orangutans in circus-like shows in Malaysia has been officially banned. Let us know at once if you see anyone breaking this law....this animal park was caught doing so by Nature Alert.
SHAME ON MALAYSIA
The government owned Melaka Zoo forces this orangutan to take part in degrading and inhumane shows. Note the lack of hair on this orangutan's arms and lower body.
Nine years secured to a three metre chain. Imagine if you will.
"Mely" enjoying fruit supplied by COP and Nature Alert.
Waiting to be rescued
Under lock and chain for at least nine years.
How governments do deals which wreck environments, people and countries
Highly Recommended reading and available from Amazon
Chained up day and night.
But confiscated and rescued by COP in January 2010.
COP to the rescue
The final moments before being released forever from the heavy chain around its neck.
A helping hand
After maybe nine years of being confined to a wooden crate this orangutan is now on the way to a rescue centre and one day back to the forest.
Highly Recommended Book
Available from Amazon and by far the best book ever written on orangutan conservation.
Another palm oil victim - one of tens of thousands - so far.
For a close up of this brutally treated orangutan, please see below.
Mother shot and eaten. Baby beaten and tied to a pole.
The plight of a baby orangutan rescued from a palm oil plantation workers in Borneo has exposed the high price these endangered primates are paying for the production of palm oil. The 2-3 year old female was found hogtied to a pole and had clearly been brutally beaten. Covered in cuts and bruises, she was also severely dehydrated and emaciated after being starved for days or even weeks.
Palm oil kills - no doubt about it.
Villagers protest against palm oil companies.
Tropical forest, home to orangutans etc.
Threatened by palm oil companies.
Saved by COP
Mother murdered by palm oil company
Tortured by palm oil company employees
Rescued and treated by COP, this orangutan has since been released back into a forest.
Palm oil plantation victim
Orphaned by a palm oil company with help from the government of Indonesia.
Indonesia's Alcatraz for orangutans
A living hell for this orangutan.
Guilty of being an orangutan
A prisoner held by the Indonesian government
Shame on the Ministry of Forestry
A life behind bars. Why?
Day after day, 24/7 ..........
A magnificent male orangutan facing life imprisonment behind bars.
Kept prisoner in filth and squalor
Things just go from bad to worse
Solitary confinement .
There can be no excuse for treating an orangutan like this.
Welcome to Indonesia
Where orangutans are incarcerated by the government.
No hope?
Has this orangutan lost the will to live?
Shame on Minister Kaban
Young orangutan in a 1.5 sq. metre cage 24 hours a day and tormented by zoo visitors.
What future do you think this orangutan has?
How much longer can the Indonesian government carry on abusing and killing orangutans?
Born in the wild.
Life behind bars - where the government of Indonesia prefers to see its orangutans.
Dying for help
With their mothers slaughtered these baby orangutans face a life of torment, torture and hunger, thanks to the government of Indonesia.
Torture chambers for orangutans at an Indonesian zoo
These orangutans have been kept like this for nine months. Until Nature Alert and COP protested the cages were left outside in all weathers.
Solitary confinement courtesy of Indonesian zoo
Caged like this 24/7 for nine months, with no end in sight.
Formerly home to orangutans and other wildlife.
Part of the price we all pay for palm oil.
Can you see the rainforest?
No? That's the way the palm oil companies like to see things.
Begging for food - not for fun.
Reduced to begging for food, this orangutan (one of two) is in a unofficial zoo in West Kalimantan. Their enclosure has nothing but bare earth, no protection from a blisteringly hot sun, a concrete tube to shelter/sleep in and no fresh water to drink.
Bored and hungry - for as long as this orangutans lives
Born to be free. Imprisioned for life.
The COP Rapid Response Team
Their arrival in a remote village often generates a lot of interest. Please see July 2008 Blog page for more details..
Saved by COP
Please see July 2008 Blog page for more details.
Mother killed and her baby tied up like this for six months.
We found her at the home of a family who had bought her from her mothers killer. Please see photo immediately below - she is now safe, rescued by COP with the local Forestry Police.
Safe and sound - now
Saved by The Centre for Orangutan Protection and its sponsors/supporters.
Another palm oil victim
Rescued by COP and The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
With its mother killed this orangutan's new owner keeps it chained up.
A baby orangutan with nowhere to go. A mother's love replaced with a chain.
How very, very sad.
What hope is there for this orangutan?
In this small crate there really is an orangutan.
Torture takes many different forms when it comes to dealing with orangutans.
Alone and abused.
Yes. There is an orangutan in this cage.
Chained to, rather than living in a tree.
There's no escape.
At a West Borneo amusement park.
Look at the rubbish this orangutan has to live with.
Escape is not an option.
same as picture below.
Yet another victim of logging and/or palm oil.
Alone, malnourished and very sad in a transit centre.
Palm oil companies take everything.
Imagine; this was once a rainforest.
Life imprisonment
Five adult orangutans are crammed into this dark, featureless cage in a zoo. All five began life in the wild.
Orphaned by loggers or palm oil companies - often the same thing.
Missing its mother. Look at her eyes and you have to wonder what she is thinking don't you? STOP PRESS this baby has since died.
A little light refreshment goes a long way.
Water melon was always a firm favourite of the orangutans. In all the differnt locations we never once saw fresh drinking water provided.
A Tasty treat
Everywhere we went we took lots of different fresh fruit to give to the hungry orangutans we always discovered in various locations.
Same location as above.
We provided food and some small branches, and they loved both.
Again, the same location
We hope we made him a little happier than he appears. The lives of these two orangutans must be almost unbearable. We hope to arrange their transfer to a rescue centre soon.
West Kalimantan (Indonesian Borneo)
Two young orangutans kept at an amusement park. They were wild born. Mothers killed by loggers.
Rescued last year and now at a rehab. centre with an uncertain future.
This baby saw her mother being killed and eaten.
Lawbreakers
Illegal loggers
The torture of orangutans is seemingly never ending.
With its left arm chained and padlocked to its neck, this orangutan is literally being tortured at an amusement park in West Kalimantan (Borneo)
Awaiting rescue from what was once its home.
With nowhere left to run, this tranquillized orangutan was rescued and moved to another forest.
Apocalypse now - Indonesian style with help from Malaysian companies.
Rescuers looking for orangutans made homeless by a palm oil company. Virgin rainforest recently stood where there is nothing but a few small trees remaining, which by now will also have been cleared away. Nov. 2007
Yet another palm oil victim
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With its mother killed, this baby with an injured eye was caged by workers until rescued by WWF Indonesia.
Illegal loggers in action. October 2007
Access to log these trees illegally was gained via a palm oil plantation road. This forest is home to 50 orangutans and palm oil companies want to log it.
The road to ruin - Indonesia style.
Where once stood a magnificent rainforest full of wildlife.
Mother and baby orangutan.
Oil palm companies have killed thousands like these two.
Palm oil victim. Mother killed.
This baby will have seen its mother slain.
Nothing, absolutely nothing, left of the forest, except for its soil.
It's all about money, greed and corruption.
Destruction and desolation as far as the eye can see
So much for Borneo's rainforests - look what palm oil companies have done to them.
They can barely cut down and remove the trees quick enough for their liking.
Palm oil companies destroy rainforests.
Freshly cut trees
These trees could end up as garden furniture in your local store.
Not a tree in sight - courtesy of oil palm companies.
Oil palm plants growing where rainforest once stood.