Nature Alert: Why are orangutans treated so badly throughout the world?

Tuesday 24 March 2009

Why are orangutans treated so badly throughout the world?

You might recall a link I posted a few days ago which would have taken you to a newspaper article showing many photos of baby orangutans at an 'orangutan hospital' in Malaysia.To me it looked suspicious.

A colleague in Malaysia has just sent me the shocking explanation below. Important to realise, these babies are not orphans but taken from their mothers instead of both being allowed to spend about 7-8 years together. There is seemingly no

end to the variations in which orangutans are ill treated throughout the world.

Sent: 24 March 2009 03:05
To: naturealert.org
Subject: Re: New haven for orangutans

Sean, this is the Bukit Merah Laketown resort. Here orangutans are separated from their mothers when born and hand raised by the staff. Of course it has good clinic and nursery. There are complaints that it is very wrong to separate mothers and babies orangutans. Here they are kept on an island.

This was one link but the photos were featured in countless newspaper throughout the world. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/features/article2327853.ece

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.