T

he freedom to interact directly with the animals of Taman Safari Indonesia was abused by visitors whose actions were recorded on a series of videos posted on their social media accounts.

In a video comprising multiple clips, a man and a woman are seen with a group of friends holding a bottle of what appears to be red wine, pouring it into the mouths of a deer and a hippopotamus during their visit to Taman Safari Indonesia in Cisarua, Bogor, West Java. They uploaded the video to Instagram Stories on their accounts @alyccaaa and @philipbiondi, which have 18.6k and 229 followers, respectively.

In one video clip, they are seen luring a deer to their car using a carrot and dangling the carrot above the animal before pouring red wine into its mouth, laughing all the while. In another clip, a man spits out a mouthful of red wine from his mouth to a hippopotamus’ mouth, prompting his friends to shout “Jackpot.”

The video began circulating on social media on Tuesday night, quickly gaining the attention of animal lovers and animal welfare activists who condemned the actions.

Many of them reposted the video on their social media accounts. Animal welfare group Garda Satwa Indonesia reposted the video on their Instagram account @gardasatwaindonesia on Wednesday alongside a caption that read, “The perpetrators visited Taman Safari Indonesia for fun, but they know no boundaries. What they did is irresponsible.”

Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN) co-founder Karin Franken said she was shocked when she received reports of the video.

“Were they drunk when they did that, so they did not think about the consequences of their actions?” she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

JAAN also condemned in a post on Instagram Stories the perpetrators’ actions, which it said reflected a lack of education.

“It breaks our hearts as activists and rescuers to see you having ‘fun’ with a lack of or even without education,” they stated on @jakartaanimalaidnetwork.

An apology posted on @alyccaaa circulated on social media after the video went viral. She expressed regret over the video, which she posted on Tuesday afternoon, and asked for forgiveness for the actions of her and her friends.

However, Taman Safari Indonesia spokesman Yulius Suprihardo said that, by Wednesday late afternoon, neither the man nor the woman had contacted the management to apologize for the incident.

He also said that the management reported the perpetrators to the police.

“We reported the two perpetrators to the Cisarua Police this morning. Their actions endangered our animals and breached animal welfare norms. Hence, we decided to take the case to the police,” he told the Post.

Animal cruelty is regulated under Article 302 of the Criminal Code, which stipulates that those who intentionally harm animals face a maximum of three months in jail. However, the sentence is increased to a maximum of nine months in jail should the animal suffer health problems for more than a week as a result of human interaction.

Animal cruelty is also regulated under Gubernatorial Regulation No. 95/2012 on animal welfare, which forbids anyone from giving animals substances that can poison, disable or kill them.

Yulius said that the park’s veterinary team have examined the animals to determine whether the alcohol affected their health.

He also thanked Instagram users for reporting the issue to Taman Safari Indonesia. “Thank you for your concern and support toward our animals’ welfare.” (ecn)