`Missing' orangutans found in zoo search - BANGKOKPOST

[Guest guest]

WILDLIFE SMUGGLING CLAIMS

TUL PINKAEW

 

All but five of the 41 missing orangutans said to have died of pneumonia

were found in cages at the private zoo Safari World yesterday.

 

Police who searched the place had suspected the apes were brought back from

hiding places in Thailand and abroad.

 

Owner and managing director Pin Kewkacha insisted the apes had never been

taken out of the zoo and the whole thing was ``a big misunderstanding''.

 

Mr Pin took forestry police to the zoo's special quarantine section for sick

animals where they found 36 of the 41 apes in seven small cages.

 

``We inspected this so-called quarantine room when we raided Safari World on

July 30 but there were no animals there,'' said Pol Col Wichit Nuntawong,

head of the investigation team.

 

Mr Pin said only five animals had died, and police misunderstood.

 

``I was in Phuket when the police came to count the orangutans but my staff

told me they did not take the police to the quarantine section because they

feared the police could contract diseases,'' said Mr Pin.

 

``Only five orangutans had died and we cremated them for everyone to see.

The police miscount was just a misunderstanding,'' he said.

 

Vincent Chu, the zoo's show director, said he asked staff to move the

orangutans as the animals were ill and did not think the police had to know

or come into contact with the orangutans as such diseases as pneumonia and

skin infections were contagious.

 

A Safari World veterinarian last week claimed 41 of the 110 orangutans died

of pneumonia and had been cremated. Kasetsart University, working with

Malaysian and Indonesian authorities, want to do DNA tests on the apes to

determine their origins. Mr Pin has surrendered to police on animal

smuggling charges.

 

``We know Mr Pin hid the apes at places he owns in Prachin Buri, Lop Buri

and also Cambodia,'' said forestry police chief Pol Maj-Gen Sawek

Pinsinchai. ``We went looking for the apes and he finally ran out of places

to hide them.''

 

``The law is on our side. We will not let this go away, we expect to lay

more charges against Mr Pin's employees, including charges of making false

statements to police,'' said Pol Col Wichit.

 

The veterinarian in charge of the apes is thought to have resigned.

 

Wildlife Conservation Bureau chief Schwann Tunhikorn said the apes would be

kept where they are because moving them could cause them injury or even

death.

 

The Department of National Park, Wildlife and Plant Conservation had

prepared animal refuge centres in Ratchaburi and Chon Buri in case the apes

need to be moved from the zoo in suburban Bangkok.

 

Forestry police have accused the department of sluggishness after being told

twice of the orangutan seizure. However, department chief Somchai

Pienstaporn denied the allegation. ``We heard only last Friday,'' Mr Somchai

said.

 

Meanwhile, the dean of Kasetsart University's faculty of veterinary has said

that the faculty will be able to conduct the DNA test once the paperwork is

done, and he is sure the orangutans are finally ready to be tested.

 

No details were to hand on why the orangutans fell ill.