"Indonesia forest fires, attacks kill 1,000 orangutans " Help!

[leftchick]

omg this is terrible. I just saw footage on CNNI of these poor creatures and their terror it made me sick....

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=BBE62FF5DA2B206721427D943E8AE991

JAKARTA (Reuters) - About 1,000 orangutans are estimated to have died in Indonesia during the dry season this year in which raging forest fires have produced thick smoke across huge areas of Southeast Asia, a conservationist said on Monday.

The fires in the Indonesian part of Borneo have deprived orangutans of food and forced them to encroach on human settlements, where they are often attacked for damaging crops, the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation said.

"Orangutans are starving. They are sick and many of those we are treating were injured after being attacked by machetes," Willie Smits, an ecologist at the foundation told Reuters, adding that many also suffered from respiratory problems.

He said 120 sick orangutans had been treated in three conservation centers over the past three months, and 10 to 15 of them had died.He estimated that in all 1,000 orangutans had died over this year's dry season.



Kessi, a young female orangutan looks at the stump where her hand was cut off by plantation workers Sunday Nov. 5, 2006 at an orangutan rehabilitation center in Palangkaraya, Kalimantan, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Ed Wray)

MANTANGAI, Indonesia -- Dozens of endangered orangutans have been driven from their dwindling jungle habitat in Borneo by months of land-clearing fires that have shrouded parts of the region in a choking haze, conservationists said Monday.

<snip>

Most were beaten by humans after fleeing from the burning jungle to nearby plantations in recent weeks, but several are being treated for respiratory problems and burns, he said.

Farmers and plantation companies set hundreds of land-clearing fires on Borneo and Sumatra each year, sending thick smoke into surrounding areas and neighboring Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei. It has caused billions of dollars in business losses and in some cases health problems.

<snip>

"Pristine jungle areas are being burnt," said Jennifer Miller, a relief worker with IFAW, which is helping Indonesia's Borneo Orangutan Survival group to recover and treat wounded orangutans. "It's extremely, extremely threatening.

"There is nothing worse than seeing an animal with a burnt face, blind and fleeing," she said ahead of a 9-day trip to Borneo.

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20061108/indonesian_orangutans_061108/20061109?hub=SciTech


International Fund for Animal Welfare website.....http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx?oid=196695

:cry:

[geiger]

1. Oh, god, this is so AWFUL; help everyone

[leftchick]

2. the video footage was so very disturbing

they looked like they were crying as they were being dragged out of trees. :cry:

[Bonobo]

3. Kicked and repeated. Orangutans are beautiful, beautiful animals...

[leftchick]

4. Video link at BBC....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6123696.stm