by Apriadi Gunawan for The Jakarta Post
Activists are demanding the government bring back orangutans originating from Indonesia that have been smuggled abroad, saying they have sent letters to embassies in the hope of securing the return of the critically endangered animals.
The activists, under the non-governmental Scorpion Wildlife Trade Monitoring Group, had written to the Indonesian Embassy in Kuwait to help return a baby orangutan to Indonesia, director Gunung Gea said. The group sent the same letter to the Environment and Forestry Ministry, asking for help in accommodating the process.
“We asked the government to bring back the baby orangutan to be rehabilitated and released into its natural habitat in Indonesia,” Gunung told The Jakarta Post over the weekend, adding that the one-and-a-half year old baby orangutan may be from Kalimantan.
The animal’s presence in Kuwait was revealed when the owner was arrested by local police over a traffic accident. The police seized the baby orangutan from its owner and are housing it temporarily in a zoo.
This excerpt from a news article appeared in and is courtesy of The Jakarta Post and can be viewed in its entirety here.
