10 Day Nightmare

Orangutan's Hand Caught In Trap

Orangutans, already critically endangered, are falling prey to traps being set by hunters in Indonesia. Recently, an orphaned orangutan was trapped in a snare for ten days before being rescued by the International Animal Rescue (IAR). The orangutan’s right hand will have to be amputated not only because of the damage of the metal trap, but also because it tried to gnaw its own hand off to rid itself of the pain caused by the trap.

“The great ape is thought to have suffered a week and a half of unimaginable torture in the trap with no food. He survived on rainwater alone before rescuers found him,” said The Metro.

The orangutan, named Pelangsi after the “area of forest in the Ketapang region where it was found,” was sedated and given IV fluids while rescuers worked to free him. He was taken to IAR’s clinic in Ketapang, West Kalimantan, Indonesia where he was placed in intensive care.

“Rescuers think he is going to survive, but he has to get strong enough before they can amputate his destroyed hand,” said Chris Skone-Roberts, a photographer that words with IAR.

Pelangsi is just the latest victim of the palm oil industry. Palm oil companies routinely clear out the natural habitat of the orangutan in order to make room for plantations to grow the crops.

“Pelangsi’s story is a graphic illustration of the fate of countless orangutans that are left homeless and hungry when the forest is cut down,” IAR’s Karmele Llano Sanchez said in a press release.

Used in many products including “cosmetics and processed food,” palm oil poses a severe threat not only to the critically endangered orangutan population, but also to the rainforest in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the first report of inhumane traps involving an orangutan, and surely won’t be the last tragic story told about the endangered animal. PT KAL (Kayung Agro Lestari), a palm oil company from Austindo Nusantrara Jaya Agri (ANJ Agri) group, has cleared out land in the area where Pelangsi was found, to make way for new plantations; an action that has left a large number of orangutans without their homes.

This from a company that claims that it “is embarking on a journey to become a Premier Plantation company and in doing so, ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Environment-friendly’ are the main driving forces of our operations.”

Destroying habitats to make room for profits and then setting traps to rid the area of homeless animals seems to be an increasing trend. One, that if we aren’t careful, will lead to the end of the orangutans, especially since there are fewer than 9,000 left in the world.

Donate to the International Animal Rescue.

Read more at IAR, The Metro, and the Huffington Post.

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