(THAI) boxing orang utans

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Boxing orangutans may finally return home - Malaysiakini

 

Apr 19, 06 11:52am

 

More than 50 orangutans which were smuggled to Thailand to perform in

kickboxing matches may finally return to their home countries two

years after the government seized them, an official said.

 

Thailand will hold talks with Malaysia and Indonesia later this week

to determine where they should go, the deputy chief of Thai national

parks told AFP.

 

" During the meeting we will finally decide which country the 54

orangutans will return to, " Chawann Tunhikorn said.

 

Officials from Malaysia and Indonesia will visit the Thai capital on

Friday and Saturday to decide the fate of the orangutans. Thai

officials say they were smuggled to the country to perform boxing

matches at a private Bangkok zoo.

 

Thai authorities seized 114 orangutans in a raid two years ago on the

Safari World zoo in Bangkok's eastern outskirts.

 

The owner of the zoo claimed they had been bred in captivity, but DNA

tests proved that 57 of them were not born in the in-house breeding

program but had apparently come from outside Thailand.

 

The orangutans were trained to fight each other in kickboxing matches

for spectators at the zoo.

 

The government seized the 57 and took them to the Khao Pratap Chang

wildlife preserve, where three have since died.

 

Proper channels

 

Chawann insisted that Thailand had always wanted to repatriate the

animals, but that deciding where to send them had proved difficult.

Experts believe some of the animals were smuggled from islands shared

by Malaysia and Indonesia.

 

" We had already made our decision but we wanted to return them through

the proper channels, " he said.

 

Orangutans are the only great ape to be found outside of Africa, and

are native to the island of Sumatra in Indonesia and to Borneo, an

island shared by Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.

 

Scientists roughly estimate that 27,000 are left in the wild. They are

considered an endangered species and their trade is banned

internationally.

 

Experts agree that the orangutan population has declined dramatically

and that smuggling of the apes is a major problem.