Orangutans: Captivity not proper care

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Sat, 11/25/2006 12:34 PM | Opinion

Joe Spartz wrote in The Jakarta Post on Nov. 24 that it would be better for the orangutans from Thailand to have stayed in zoos in Thailand under proper care so visitors could get to know them.

I am amazed at the lack of insight that still seems to live among the public. First, the costs of this three-year campaign were almost exclusively born by the Borneo Orangutan Survival (BOS) Foundation, who reported these orangutans to the government, who paid for the government teams from both countries to visit and inspect and make the legal arrangements, paid for the DNA testing, the cages, etc., and is at this moment the only one picking up the bill for the medical care and feeding of these orangutans. This is voluntary money from private parties that care for orangutans and donate to this cause.

Second, orangutans are highly intelligent and peaceful beings. They know they are being jailed, forced to beat up each other for the delight of uneducated spectators in stupid boxing shows, and not even the food in captivity can rival the more than 500 different kinds of food they gather in the jungle. Captivity is not proper care.

Third, the whole purpose of returning those orangutans is the legal issue. Without law enforcement the remaining wild orangutans are doomed. These first 48 orangutans represent merely the tip of a US$1 billion annual loss from animal smuggling from Indonesia.

WILLIE SMITS
BOS Jakarta

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