Indonesian zoo under fire after video shows orangutan smoking a cigarette
The endangered Bornean orangutan picked up and started smoking a cigarette that was thrown into its enclosure by a visitor.
An Indonesian zoo, which has been criticised in the past for mistreating animals, is under fire again after a video of an orangutan smoking inside its enclosure was widely shared this week.
The video purportedly shot on Sunday shows a man throw a half-smoked cigarette into the 22-year-old Bornean orangutan’s enclosure. The primate picks it up and expertly puffs on it, AP reported.
Animal rights activists said the video is further evidence of lack of supervision at the privately-owned Bandung Zoo.
“Weak control by zoo management also needs to be addressed,” said Marison Guciano, the founder of the Indonesia Animal Welfare Society, AFP reported. “But the root of the problem is that we do not have animal welfare standards at zoos.”
A Bandung zoo spokesperson on Wednesday said the zoo regretted the incident, that it has posted staff to guard animal enclosures and the officer responsible may have been in the toilet. “There’s actually a sign at the location that says visitors are not allowed to give food and cigarettes to the animals,” the spokesperson Sulhan said.
The zoo has repeatedly been in the news as its animals are believed to be starving and sick. It was temporarily closed in 2016 after bruises were found on a Sumatran elephant that died, AP reported. In 2017, videos showed skinny sun bears at the zoo begging for food from visitors, BBC reported.
Indonesia not only has poor animal welfare standards, but has also had a problem of smoking apes in the past. In 2012 an orangutan named Tori at the Taru Jurug zoo in central Java began smoking after picking up cigarette butts from visitors. The zoo had to move her away from visitors to make her quit, the BBC report said.