Captivity

Help the Orangutans The adults are shot and the babies are captured. When the rainforest is cut down or burned, orangutans and other animals living there are forced to flee to new areas. Many times the orangutans have not other option but to enter into areas used by human such as plantations in order to find food. Unfortunately these encounters often end up with the adults being shot and eaten and the babies captured. The orangutan is a threatened species and therefore worth a lot of money on the black market. The little ones, with such human-like behaviors and a requiring a great need for comfort, become popular entertainment. In Asia there is a big market for orangutan babies. In both Indonesia and Malaysia there is great prestige to be able to afford to have a captured wild animal in your home. It is particularly shocking that many of the people who keep orangutans as pets are the very people who should be enforcing the law. Customs around the world are in constant pursuit of people smuggling baby orangutans, but few criminals are caught. The orangutan are often smuggled with the large freighters loaded with the very timber that was once their home. Many of them die during the journey and the ones that do survive are in for a lot of difficulties. The owners are often ignorant of the most basic needs of an orangutan. They are fed the wrong food and often get too much or too little. Illnesses, stress and depression are typical of captive orangutans. It is also common that the orangutans are help captive outdoors in small wooden cages or chained to poles where they are exposed the wind, rain or too much sun. In such conditions, most baby orangutans simply do not survive. Help the Orangutans