Nick Marx, Wild Aid specialist for animal husbandry, holds a four-year-old male orang utan after he was rescued from the streets of Phnom Penh June 5, 2006. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea Deutsche Presse-Agentur
Phnom Penh - The life of a desperately ill orangutan 'rescued' by a wildlife group from a senior government official on its way to the vet hung in the balance and a legal storm over ownership loomed, officials on both sides said Tuesday.
The ape was 'rescued' by controversial non-government conservation group WildAid in a raid it said it coordinated with military police and forestry officials Monday as the animal was being transported via taxi across the capital.
WildAid said it could find no records of proper papers being filed for legal custody of the endangered species.
But senior government official Nhim Vanda, to whom the four-year-old primate turned out to belong to, says he had been given the unnamed animal as a gift by his son, whom he believed in turn had rescued it from captivity somewhere in Cambodia.
Vanda, who heads the National Disaster Committee and owns two private zoos in the southern border provinces of Prey Veng and Kampot, has threatened legal action if he does not receive a good explanation as to why the orangutan was seized by force and wants it returned.
'The issue of illegal orangutan importation is a big story, and in Thailand there are many of these animals awaiting repatriation to their native Indonesia and jungles in isolated pockets of Malaysia,' WildAid official Nick Marx said by telephone.
'This animal is very poorly. We are not sure it will survive. We are giving it medical care.'
But a spokesman for Vanda said the ape had been 'arrested' en route to medical care it was already receiving, and that Vanda had undertaken to try to treat the animal himself after it came into his care in poor health.
He said Vanda claims he would have welcomed expert advice in treating the animal if it was offered, but was now deeply upset it had been confiscated by force and allegations of animal trafficking made.
'Excellency Vanda is an expert in animal preservation. He cares for many endangered species at his zoos, including tigers,' the spokesman said. 'If there is not a good explanation to help him understand why his excellency and the animal were treated in this way, he has said he will begin legal action.'
Experts have estimated that less than 50,000 orangutans remain, and wildlife trafficking groups say hundreds are captured and smuggled each year to feed a market of private collectors and zoos. WildAid's Marx said the organization feared the ape had been trafficked and needed help.
However, WildAid has itself been at the centre of controversy for its forceful methods, most recently when prominent local human rights group Adhoc launched a legal suit against the organization alleging it had briefly detained and handcuffed one of its activists as she tried to stop its agents from burning down villagers' homes.
WildAid claims the huts were located illegally within a nature reserve and the inhabitants had been cutting down protected forest for a commercial charcoal operation.
Marx said further investigations were needed in the case of the orangutan to determine what action needed to be taken, and that currently the animal's health was of primary concern.
'We didn't know who this orangutan belonged to. We acted on reports that an orangutan was regularly being transported across the city by taxi or motorbike, and checks did not turn up any required CITES papers necessary to keep an endangered animal such as this,' Marx said.
'We operate with the government and we work with government agencies including military police and forestry officials,' he said.
The ape was 'rescued' by controversial non-government conservation group WildAid in a raid it said it coordinated with military police and forestry officials Monday as the animal was being transported via taxi across the capital.
WildAid said it could find no records of proper papers being filed for legal custody of the endangered species.
But senior government official Nhim Vanda, to whom the four-year-old primate turned out to belong to, says he had been given the unnamed animal as a gift by his son, whom he believed in turn had rescued it from captivity somewhere in Cambodia.
Vanda, who heads the National Disaster Committee and owns two private zoos in the southern border provinces of Prey Veng and Kampot, has threatened legal action if he does not receive a good explanation as to why the orangutan was seized by force and wants it returned.
'The issue of illegal orangutan importation is a big story, and in Thailand there are many of these animals awaiting repatriation to their native Indonesia and jungles in isolated pockets of Malaysia,' WildAid official Nick Marx said by telephone.
'This animal is very poorly. We are not sure it will survive. We are giving it medical care.'
But a spokesman for Vanda said the ape had been 'arrested' en route to medical care it was already receiving, and that Vanda had undertaken to try to treat the animal himself after it came into his care in poor health.
He said Vanda claims he would have welcomed expert advice in treating the animal if it was offered, but was now deeply upset it had been confiscated by force and allegations of animal trafficking made.
'Excellency Vanda is an expert in animal preservation. He cares for many endangered species at his zoos, including tigers,' the spokesman said. 'If there is not a good explanation to help him understand why his excellency and the animal were treated in this way, he has said he will begin legal action.'
Experts have estimated that less than 50,000 orangutans remain, and wildlife trafficking groups say hundreds are captured and smuggled each year to feed a market of private collectors and zoos. WildAid's Marx said the organization feared the ape had been trafficked and needed help.
However, WildAid has itself been at the centre of controversy for its forceful methods, most recently when prominent local human rights group Adhoc launched a legal suit against the organization alleging it had briefly detained and handcuffed one of its activists as she tried to stop its agents from burning down villagers' homes.
WildAid claims the huts were located illegally within a nature reserve and the inhabitants had been cutting down protected forest for a commercial charcoal operation.
Marx said further investigations were needed in the case of the orangutan to determine what action needed to be taken, and that currently the animal's health was of primary concern.
'We didn't know who this orangutan belonged to. We acted on reports that an orangutan was regularly being transported across the city by taxi or motorbike, and checks did not turn up any required CITES papers necessary to keep an endangered animal such as this,' Marx said.
'We operate with the government and we work with government agencies including military police and forestry officials,' he said.
1 comment:
Today people will save orangutan and tommorrow people will allow the Viet to kill Mountagnard people! Now you see why it is so hard to be a human than to be animal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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