A veterinarian looks at an X-ray photo of the Bornean orangutan, showing 130 pellets in its body. The male Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) was found barely alive on 5 February 2018 by officials from Kutai National Park in East Kalimantan. It died the next day from its extensive injuries. Photo: Centre for Orangutan Protection
A veterinarian looks at an X-ray photo of the Bornean orangutan, showing 130 pellets in its body. The male Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) was found barely alive on 5 February 2018 by officials from Kutai National Park in East Kalimantan. It died the next day from its extensive injuries. Photo: Centre for Orangutan Protection

JAKARTA, 18 February 2018 (Mongabay) – Police in Indonesia have arrested and charged four farmers with the killing of an orangutan found shot more than 100 times.

Investigators in East Kalimantan province, in Indonesian Borneo, detained the four men on 15 February 2018 and charged them the following day. They have been identified as 36-year-old Muis; H. Nasir, 55; and Andi and Rustam, both 37. (Many Indonesians go by one name.)

The male Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) was found barely alive on 5 February 2018 by officials from Kutai National Park in East Kalimantan. An X-ray revealed its body was riddled with 130 air gun pellets. It died the next day from its extensive injuries.Teddy Ristiawan, the chief of the East Kutai district police, said in a statement on 17 February 2018 that the five suspects “all took turns shooting at the orangutan.” Police said a fifth person, a 13-year-old boy, was also involved in the killing, but would not be charged because he was a minor.

According to police, the farmers killed the orangutan because they believed it had encroached onto their pineapple farm and ruined their crop. An autopsy conducted earlier had revealed pineapple remnants in the animal’s stomach.

The police have charged the suspects with violating the 1990 conservation act. Under the specific article on killing protected animals, which include the critically endangered Bornean orangutan, the suspects could face prison time of up to five years and fines of up to 100 million rupiah ($7,000). […]

The orangutan killing in East Kalimantan was the second such case reported in Indonesia this year. In January, an orangutan was found decapitated and shot more than a dozen times with a pellet gun in a river in Central Kalimantan. Police have arrested and charged two rubber farmers in connection with the killing of the protected species. […]

Orangutans are ostensibly protected by law, but lax enforcement means few perpetrators ever face justice for killing or trading in these great apes. [more]

Four Indonesian farmers charged in killing of orangutan that was shot 130 times