14 DAY TRIAL // The police are trying to solve a shocking case of animal cruelty, recorded in Indonesia, at a palm oil plantation located in Muara Kamam. An adult orangutan was tortured and killed and authorities are doing their best to find out who is responsible for this tragic incident.
They started the investigation by questioning Yaya Rayadin, a researcher from Mulawarman University in Samarinda, who analyzed the creature's bones. According to the expert, its death was violent.
The remains were discovered by local people who hurried to announce the competent authorities. The bones are now in the custody of the Natural Resources Conservation Agency (BKSDA). Even if this kind of unfortunate incidents take place quite often, it is the first time that the police actually question a public authority in their investigation.
The incident was recorded in September, but a lot of water went under the bridge until the Indonesian police managed to raise conclusive evidence. They even tried to find out more while relying on media's support. Videos displaying animal cruelty appeared on TV for a short period of time.
According to Yaya, local people killed several orangutans since 2008. For the inhabitants such creatures are nothing more than pests.
Each animal eats up to 40 palm tree fruits, an action which affects the profit margins of plantation firms. This theory is supported by such a company's former employee, who reported that enterprises operating in this line of business often offered significant rewards to the people who captured an orangutan and brought it dead or alive.
“They also had special hunters. As for the hunters, they just shot them. So any of us who brought three orangutans to the office, after they were photographed, we didn’t have to wait, within a week we would be paid Rp 3 million ($333/ €247,39)” declared the witness.
In order to show how threatened these creatures really are, 19 non-profit organizations joined forces and published a recent study, highlighting that 750 orangutans are killed in Indonesian Borneo every year, a significant number if we correlate it with the decline of the entire population.
The total number of Bornean orangutans is estimated to be less than 14% of what it was in the recent past. Its sharp decline was linked to human activities and industrial development.