Animal charity fights to save baby orangutan rescued from illegal pet trade

Baby orangutan Budi, being given the comfort he has been denied by being taken from his mother's care and protection

A baby orangutan in Borneo, saved by UK charity International Animal Rescue (IAR), is struggling to regain health after suffering months of starvation and neglect through ignorance.

For the first year of his life Budi was kept in a chicken cage and misguidedly fed entirely on condensed milk.

The owner, a local from Kubing in Ketapang, West Borneo, who was keeping the orangutan illegally, said she was afraid to give Budi any fruits and thought that giving condensed milk would be sufficient.

In December the owner informed the authorities that she was willing to hand over her pet, admitting that he was very sick.

A rescue team made up of two vets from IAR, representatives of the Agency for Natural Resources Conservation in Ketapang, and Gunung Palung National Park responded to the call.

Continued ...

Yet another baby orangutan fighting for life after being kept as a pet

Orangutan victim of the illegal pet trade fights for her life in west Kalimantan

June 2012. A new baby orangutan has arrived at the Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre run by International Animal Rescue (IAR) in West Kalimantan, Indonesian Borneo. The Agency of Natural Resources Conservation (BKSDA) in West Kalimantan rescued the orangutan, named Anyin, who was being kept illegally as a pet, and IAR's rescue team brought her to the clinic at IAR's Centre where she is in intensive care.

Very sick
"After being kept as a pet for more than eighteen months, the owner only decided to hand over Anyin to BKSDA officers because the baby was very sick and he knew she could die" says Dr Adi Irawan, Manager of Ketapang Orangutan Centre.

Cost $140
The owner had purchased the baby orangutan for just 1,150,000IDR (which is equivalent to only about 140USD). "A pittance to pay for an endangered animal..." states Dr Karmele Llano Sanchez, Executive Director of Yayasan IAR Indonesia. A hunter had killed the mother to catch the baby and sell it in the illegal pet trade.

Rarest subspecies
"This Orangutan comes from Sambas Regency," continues Dr Sanchez, "This area is home to the most endangered subspecies of the Bornean orangutan, Pongo pygmaeus pygmaeus". This subspecies has been recently included in the IUCN Red List of the 25 most endangered primates in the world with only a small wild population living in the north part of West Kalimantan province and in Sarawak in Malaysia.

Read more:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/kalimantan-orangutan.html