Thai Department of National Parks fails to protect confiscated orang utans

[Guest guest]

PRESS RELEASE

 

 

For immediate release

 

August 20th, 2004

 

 

Thai Department of National Parks fails to

protect confiscated orang utans.

 

Three more of the 115 allegedly illegally obtained orang

utans were reported dead yesterday at Safariworld in Bangkok. According to a spokesman of the zoo

they died of pneumonia over the last couple of days. Although it is normal

procedure for confiscated animals or goods to be moved to the care of the

authorities, in this instance it seems no effort has been made to find a

suitable location to move the confiscated apes too. The responsible authority,

the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plants, said they cannot provide

space for these apes at their Wildlife Breeding Centers; the usual facilities

that confiscated animals are relocated to. The apes are now left to die in totally

unsuitable and inadequate living conditions. Each one of the 115 orang utans is

considered to be vital evidence in the ongoing case regarding the illegal trade

in this endangered species. To date 13 of the 115 originally found apes have died

under suspicious circumstances.

 

The proposed DNA check of all the remaining apes will still

be pursued by the Forestry Police Division

under command of Police General-Major Swake Pinsinchai with the (financial) assistance

of the BOSF (Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation), WFFT (Wildlife Friends of

Thailand) and the TAGA (Thai Animal Guardians Association). It is intended that

the taking of samples for the DNA-check will start within 14 days.

 

To date the Thai authorities have not spoken out in favor of

the repatriation of the apes to Indonesia

if found that they were indeed illegally obtained from the wild. The decision whether

or not to let the orang utans leave Thailand will ultimately be up to

the Director-General of the Department of National Parks. Although CITES (Convention

on International Trade in Endangered Species), of which Thailand is a signatory,

has guidelines and recommendations on the repatriation of confiscated wildlife,

this does not mean that the country involved is obligated to do so. International

pressure strongly supports such a move and from both an animal welfare and

conservation perspective it is widely believed that repatriation is in the best

interest of the animals involved.

 

It is hard to believe that the Department of National Parks

(DNP) cannot accommodate the obviously illegally obtained orang utans that so

desperately need a safe refuge, while only a few days ago a group of rescued and

recuperating animals living in perfect conditions at a specialized NGO-run

Wildlife Rescue Center were brutally and needlessly removed by officials of the

DNP and sent to various centers countrywide.

 

 

Edwin Wiek

-Thailand

Representative BOSF

-Director Wildlife Friends of Thailand