Nature Alert: 11 Orangutans rescued from private zoo

Tuesday, 24 February 2009

11 Orangutans rescued from private zoo

Note: It may be just a coincidence but in the autumn of 2008 it was reported by a locally based researcher that 20 orangutans had been poached from a national park in East Kalimantan.

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11 Orangutans rescued from private zoo

By The Nation, Thailand
Published on February 23, 2009

Officers raid Crocodile and Tiger World in Phuket, where animals were being held illegally

In a raid that has only recently been reported, a team of National Parks Department officers and wildlife activists on February 5 raided a private zoo in Phuket City and rescued 11 young orangutans being held there illegally to serve as a tourist attraction.

The successful raid followed several reports from tourists to the non-governmental Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT) that ten young orangutans were on display at Crocodile and Tiger World, a private zoo located in Phuket City.

The zoo also features more than 10,000 crocodiles, Bengal tigers, ostriches and gibbons.

Attractions at the zoo allow people to bottle feed baby tigers for a small fee and watch an attractive young woman stick her head into the mouth of an enormous crocodile.

WFFT secretary-general Edwin Wiek said the raid followed several tip-offs from tourists aware of the plight of the highly endangered orangutans. They sent in pictures and video clips of the primates, which Wiek used to convince officials to organise a January 22 raid on the zoo.

Unfortunately, the first raid was unsuccessful because the media leaked news of the impending raid in time for the zoo owner to hide the apes.

In the successful second raid, carried out on February 5, authorities found 11 orangutans ranging in age from less than two years old to about five years in a small stock room, Wiek said.

All 11 animals are now being given medical checks at the WFFT's Rescue Centre in Ratchaburi, he said.

"Two of them are actually quite sick, having trouble with parasites. The other ones weren't fed the right foods and have some bad dental problems. I don't think they will go back to Indonesia soon - or even if they'll go back - because in Indonesia there is so much trouble with the animals in captivity. But at least this zoo is not going to to exploit them any longer or import .

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2009/02/23/national/national_30096344.php

Hall of Shame for President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and the Palm Oil Industry.

Nothing can prepare one for the sight of the systematic extermination of orangutans by the government of Indonesia.

Look at the photos and news articles on these pages in the context of a statement the President made to the media on 10th December 2007.

“In the last 35 years about 50,000 orangutans are estimated to have been lost as their habitats shrank. If this continues, this majestic creature will likely face extinction by 2050,” President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said at the launch of an orangutan conservation plan at the climate talks in Bali.

“The fate of the orangutan is a subject that goes to the heart of sustainable forests … To save the orangutan we have to save the forest.”

Statements like these are most welcome, but unless backed up by action, such words fall on deaf ears within the Ministry of Forestry....who are busy granting licences to cut down the very forests the President says they should protect!

When you think you are to busy to help, please could you reflect for a moment on .........

The following extract refers to environmental problems in general. I just hope you find it as thought provoking and relevant to orangutans as I have.

"This is such a shocking and unpalatable fact that most people deny it, or they just don't want to think about it. They believe as individuals, they can do little about it, so push it to the back of their minds. But I can't do that.

When something has to be done, we need to do it. It doesn't matter how big the challenge is or how hard the solution; if I know something is wrong, and I am in a position to help, I will do my best to make it right." Duncan Bannatyne, successful British businessman.