BREAKING UPDATE! 5 Indonesians Arrested For Stabbing & Shooting Orangutan 130 Times With Air Gun

Center for Orangutan Protection

WAN recently reported the devastating news from the Indonesian part of Borneo that a critically endangered orangutan was stabbed and shot at least 130 times with an air gun, the largest number of pellets they have ever found in a case of an orangutan shooting.

On Monday, according to the Washington Post, police announced that four farmers and a 13-year-old boy in Indonesia has been arrested after admitting that they were responsible for the stabbing, clubbing, and shooting of the male orangutan who was believed to be between 5 and 6 years old.

They reportedly said they did it to the “pest” in order to “protect their pineapple crop.”

The Centre for Orangutan Protection (COP) transported the critically injured animal, which was found by villagers in a lake in the Kutai Timur district of East Kalimantan province, to Pupuk Kaltim hospital where he later passed away after 12 hours of surgery and treatment.

The organization revealed some of the horrific results from the orangutan’s four-hour necropsy on its website such as the fact that the X-Ray found at least 130 bullets from an air rifle of which 74 were in its head. Sadly, the team was only able to remove 48 bullets.

Other revelations included that both of the orangutan’s eyes had been blinded by several bullets, there were an estimated 19 new open wounds made by a sharp object, and bruises in the left thigh area, right chest, and left hand were thought to be due to a blunt object.

If found guilty of violating the National Resources Conservation Law, the four adult suspects face up to five years in jail and fines of $7,400.00. The teenager could face half that punishment at a juvenile detention center.

This marked the second known killing of an orangutan this year, with another great ape found beheaded a mere three weeks ago in Central Kalimantan.

The COP has recorded 25 orangutan shooting cases since 2012. Seven of these cases occurred in East Kalimantan, four in Central Kalimantan, two in West Kalimantan and the remaining 12 cases in Sumatra.

A similar case also occurred in May 2016 but was not revealed until now.

Kalimantan orangutans are threatened with extinction from the degradation and conversion of their rainforest habitat for Palm Oil Plantations who harvest Vegetable Oil that is essentially Palm Oil for human consumption. If not harvested sustainably, the Palm Oil companies put a bounty on the heads of orangutans after they clear their rainforest habitat, because orangutans are sadly considered pests and get in the way of Palm Oil harvesting. 50% of all products in grocery stores contain palm oil, which is a cheap oil that is not even healthy for you and contributes to the destruction of rainforests and orangutans in Indonesia.

Commit To Keep Your Palms Off Palm Oil!