Nature Alert: SHOCKING ABUSE OF AN ORANGUTAN

Tuesday, 20 October 2009

SHOCKING ABUSE OF AN ORANGUTAN

This YouTube film (SEE BELOW) was brought to my attention recently.

We have no way of knowing if this was once a wild orangutan. But, we do know Thailand has illegally imported many wild orangutans in the past. In fact, there are still 11 wild-caught orangutans languishing in cages in Thailand since they were first discovered and confiscated back in February. The chances are they will end up

looking like and being treated in a similar way to the one in the film, because no orangutan NGO group I have approached so far will lift a finger to help them now.

Sad, though all this is, more shocking still is that I have been unable to persuade any orangutan

or animal welfare group to provide even modest funding to an investigator (not me) to address issues like the orangutan in this film. As far as I know, and off course I could be wrong because I would never suggest I know what everyone is doing, it is just me personally and one other person using private savings to try and do something to help captive orangutans. Just how sad is this?

If you support any form of conservation or animal welfare group, why not send this to them and ask 'what are they doing to help orangutans like the one in the film below'?

Check out this film below. What you see is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to captive orangutans. Does anyone out there care enough to want to help them? sw@naturealert.org

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Thailand Nong Nooch flower garden, obese orangutan sitting with tourists getting photos taken then later abused by a Thai zookeeper.

CLICK ON THIS LINK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g6hUxBz2gTc

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.