Group says orangutan mistreated in Pahang zoo, wants transfer
A group dedicated to the well-being of orangutans has appealed to authorities to transfer a primate to Sarawak's Matang Wildlife Sanctuary, claiming she was being mistreated at the Kuala Lipis Zoo in Pahang.
Friends of the Orangutans director, Upreshpal Singh, said the suffering of 12-year-old Katarina was also due to poor funding for the zoo.
"Visitors freely feed her junk food and throw cigarettes at her. There is no supervision of visitors and the zoo is not in a state to meet the needs of Katarina, as it is severely underfunded," he said.
He said while RM60 million was spent on the two pandas on loan from China, Katarina languished in the Kuala Lipis Zoo.
“While the two pandas from China receive daily enrichment, Katarina receives none in her solitary life at the zoo.
"And her night cage is completely void of bedding, she is forced to sit on cold concrete every day for at least 12 hours after the zoo is closed," he said.
Upreshpal had earlier this week handed over a memorandum to several ministries, including the Prime Minister's Office, stressing the urgency of moving Katarina to a sanctuary instead of another zoo.
"We don't want her to be sent to another zoo, she needs to be sent to a sanctuary to regain her natural instincts," he said.
Upreshpal said that it was believed that Katarina was given to the zoo authorities when the primate’s owners could no longer care for her.
"When an orangutan is small, it is very cute, but when it grows, it will have the capability to overpower an adult, this is why Katarina was passed to the zoo three years ago," he said.
He described Katarina (pic, right) as the "loneliest orangutan in the world" who spent her remaining days in solitary confinement with no companion, toys or leafy trees, and deprived of her natural habitat which a sanctuary could provide.
It is feared that if she is not introduced to an orangutan’s natural habitat or socialised with others of the same species, Katarina may lose all her natural instincts.
Katarina is among some 50,000 orangutans still surviving in the wild on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and in Borneo.
Upreshpal said people should be more aware of Katarina's plight.
"She has to sit in an enclosure the whole day on the concrete floor, waiting for something to do, this is even worse than being in jail, at least in jail you have something to do," he added. – February 8, 2015.
