Issue: Letter: Orangutans betrayed

Dec. 12, p. 8

After 18 months of excuses and deceit the truth is out. The Forestry Ministry and seemingly almost all
of the so-called orangutan conservation and animal welfare organizations have abandoned 12 young orangutans to a life of abuse and neglect in Thailand.
It was February 2009, when Thai forestry officials raided a private zoo in Phuket and confiscated 12 orangutans stolen from their mothers and the forests of Indonesia. To kidnap the then babies, hunters (most likely palm oil employees) first had to kill all 12 mothers.
Given the legal (in theory) protection afforded orangutans, one would be forgiven for thinking Indonesian government authorities and NGO groups who profess to care about orangutans would be clamoring to have the animals brought home to Indonesia. You would be wrong. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Your comments:

I think it’s time for Indonesia to take control of its deforestation and all out unchecked abuse on any primate or protected species unlucky enough to be where a palm tree plantation is planned.
Don’t they get it is a blessing to have such biodiversity, not a curse!
Al Janice
Texas

This is such a tragedy. We should do everything we can to save the orangutans.
Wanda
The US
 
There is another report on the website of a UK newspaper of an orangutan in Kalimantan being attacked and killed.
Like numerous other orangutans who have suffered the same fate, this particular starving female and her infant fell easily into the hands of their human torturers due to the destruction of the orangutans rainforest home which once provided these great apes with a safe haven and all the fruiting trees they needed to survive.
This particular female was forced to enter a small village in a desperate search for food for herself and her dependent young one which ended up with them being captured.
Both were tied up, beaten and caged and the adult orangutan subjected to the most unimaginable cruelty of being held down by several men until she drowned.
The infant has been rescued by an orangutan rehabilitation center, but who knows if she will survive the trauma of witnessing the violent killing of her mother?
Young orangutans frequently die of grief and depression after experiencing such terrible scenes.
In theory, orangutans are protected under Indonesian law. The sad reality is that this law is never enforced.
As orangutans continue to be treated with such contempt and their numbers plummet into oblivion, lawmakers appear to be looking the other way.
What message is that sending to the rest of the world regarding the Indonesian government’s commitment to protecting its ever dwindling forests and wildlife, including this iconic yet persecuted ape?
Jeanie Elford
London