Four Indonesian farmers charged in killing of orangutan that was shot 130 times

JAKARTA — Police in Indonesia have arrested and charged four farmers with the killing of an orangutan found shot more than 100 times. Investigators in East Kalimantan province, in Indonesian Borneo, detained the four men on Feb. 15 and charged them the following day. They have been identified as 36-year-old Muis; H. Nasir, 55; and Andi and Rustam, both 37. (Many Indonesians go by one name.) As part of the arrest, police also seized four pellet guns allegedly used in the killing. The male Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) was found barely alive on Feb. 5 by officials from Kutai National Park in East Kalimantan. An X-ray revealed its body was riddled with 130 air gun pellets. It died the next day from its extensive injuries. Teddy Ristiawan, the chief of the East Kutai district police, said in a statement on Feb. 17 that the five suspects “all took turns shooting at the orangutan.” Police said a fifth person, a 13-year-old boy, was also involved in the killing, but would not be charged because he was a minor. Police in East Kalimantan hold a press conference to announce the arrest of the four farmers, in orange jumpsuits, charged with shooting and killing a Bornean orangutan earlier this year. Photo courtesy of the Environment and Forestry Ministry in East Kalimantan. According to police, the farmers killed the orangutan because they believed it had encroached onto their pineapple farm and ruined their crop. An autopsy conducted earlier had revealed pineapple remnants in the…

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