Four Indonesian men have been arrested after killing orangutan by shooting the animal about 130 times

News24xx.com -  Four Indonesian men have been arrested after killing orangutan by shooting the animal about 130 times with an air rifle, police said on Monday, February 19 2018 in the latest fatal attack on an endangered species.

The suspects, who are farmers from the island of Borneo, claim to kill the animals, and saying it (orangutans) ruined their crops at a pineapple and palm oil plantation, according to the authorities.

"They intend to expel (orangutans) but their actions instead kill orangutans," East Kutai district police chief, Teddy Ristiawan told AFP.

The suspects, that arrested last week, are accused of killing a protected animal and facing a five-year prison sentence and a maximum fine of around USD 7,400.

Ristiawan said one men from five suspects is a 13-year-old boy, he was arrested but later released because he was a minor.

The villagers in Borneo's East Kutai district found the male orangutan's body filled with pellets two weeks ago. His mutilated body also showed signs of wounds from sharp objects.

The gruesome killings to an orangutan also occurred about a week after the Borneo police arrested two rubber plantation workers and accused them of shooting orangutans many times and then chopping them.

The orangutan's headless body had been found floating in a river on the island, which divides Indonesia (Kalimantan) with Malaysia.

The Bornean and Sumatran orangutans are listed as endangered by the International Society for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The population of orangutans in Sumatra is estimated to be just under 15,000, while some 54,000 orangutans are estimated to live in Borneo, according to IUCN.

According to a study published in the journal Current Biology last week, the population of orangutans in Borneo has more than half recorded since 1999 - nearly 150,000 orangutans have been lost at the time - largely due to logging for paper, palm oil and mining.

Plantation workers and villagers are sometimes known to attack an animal they consider to be a pest, while hunters also catch them for sale as pets.

 

 

 

News24xx.com/dev/red