Sad but true story re Orang and Palm Oil

Dear Friends of the Orangutan,

I received this in a communication from Lone Droscher Nielsen, the manager

for the Nyaru Menteng Orangutan Reintroduction Project in Borneo, regarding

the rescue of an orangutan in a palm-oil plantation. Please be warned, what

follows is very distressing.

Michelle Desilets

Director

Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UK

".One team returned back from a short rescue with a female who had been

beaten badly by plantation workers. After having beaten her unconscious,

they tied her up with thick nylon rope around her wrists, elbows and ankles.

When the team arrived she was still very groggy but fighting. Her one arm

from the elbow down was in bad shape. It appeared that someone had poured

hot water over her arm and the skin was beginning to fall off. Back at the

clinic she was attended to as well as possible without tranquilising her

(due to her head injuries, we did not dare to tranquilize her). On her second day, she was still unable to stand up without falling over,

but she was eating and drinking well. One of her pupils was dilated and did

not react to light, while the other was very small and did have some

reaction. We gave her nutritional drinks and antibiotics. Her arm looked

worse and worse and we were afraid it would turn into gangrene. We contacted

Dr. Chris Furley in Singapore Zoo to ask his opinion and he told us we could

without risk tranquilising the orangutan, as long as we only used ketamine.

Despite only giving her half a dose, she was out for 4 hours, during which

we did the best to save her arm. The skin could literally be pulled off like

pieces of clothes and we bandaged the arm with specially-treated gauze.

After she woke up, we could feed her and give her fluids and she greedily

took it all. In the morning, she stayed lying down and at around 10 o'clock

she silently died, most probably from her head injuries.

Again, it shows how much it is needed to educate the plantation workers to

avoid these situations.

Love, Lone"