Article: Orang utans dropped off by donor, says Taiping Zoo

Wednesday July 1, 2009

By CHRISTINA KOH

IPOH: An anonymous donor had dropped off the two young orang utans confiscated from the Taiping Zoo earlier this month, its director Dr Kevin Lazarus said.

He said the zoo staff accepted the totally protected animals two or three weeks ago because they were concerned that the animals might be traded somewhere else.

"I was away at the time so I did not know who the donors were. We took the orang utans in as a social obligation," said Dr Lazarus, who is also Malaysian Association of Zoological Parks and Aquaria chairman.

He added that the zoo was in the process of writing a letter to inform the Department of Wildlife and National Park (Perhilitan), when its officials visited the zoo last week.

The orang utans are believed to be part of a smuggled group of five animals.

Besides the two from the zoo, another was taken from a private ostrich breeder in Klang and Perhilitan was looking for the remaining two.

Dr Lazarus said the public had been known to drop off common animals like foxes and birds at the zoo but it was rare to receive a totally protected species.

Meanwhile, non-governmental organisation Traffic Southeast Asia said Perhilitan should scrutinise the activities of all zoos and private wildlife collectors in view of the recent orang utan seizure.

"We urge Perhilitan to investigate the origins of the critically endangered animals and how they came to be in the possession of both the zoo and ostrich breeder," the organisation's senior communications officer Elizabeth John said in a statement yesterday.

The organisation monitors the trading of protected wildlife.

This article was taken from: The Star Online: Nation 1 July 2009