Four held for shooting orangutan 130 times

JAKARTA: Four Indonesian men have been arrested over the killing of an orangutan shot some 130 times with an air rifle, police said yesterday, in the latest fatal attack on a critically endangered species.

The suspects, farmers from the island of Borneo, admitted killing the animal, saying it ruined their crops at a pineapple and palm oil plantation, according to authorities.

“They meant to shoo away (the orangutan) but their actions instead killed the orangutan,” East Kutai district police chief Teddy Ristiawan said.

The suspects, who were arrested last week, will be charged with killing a protected animal and face up to five years’ jail and a maximum fine of about US$7,400 (RM28,000).

Ristiawan said a fifth suspect, a 13-year-old boy, was arrested but later released because he was a minor.

Villagers in Borneo’s East Kutai district discovered the male orangutan’s corpse riddled with pellets two weeks ago.

Its mutilated body also showed signs of a machete wounds.

The gruesome killing came about a week after Borneo police arrested two rubber plantation workers and accused them of shooting an orangutan multiple times and then decapitating it.

The orangutan’s headless body had been found floating in a river on the island, which is shared with Malaysia. – AFP