Thailand's Orangutan Shame

Photo from Safari World - Thailand showing the shameful abuse of orangutans.

Last year I travelled to Borneo and visited the Sepilok Orangutan Sanctuary in Sabah . The Sepilok sanctuary was founded in 1964 to rehabilitate orphan orangutans. The sanctuary is located on the edge of the Kabili Sepilik Forest Reserve and is used as a rehabilitation site for orangutans . The orangutans are taken to the centre when they are orphaned or for treatment when they have been injured. After spending some time in quarantine they are gradually released into the reserve. The orangutans learn to look for food so they are able to fend for themselves.

100 years ago there were probably more than 230,000 orangutans in Borneo and Sumatra. In the last ten years alone their numbers have declined by 30-50%, and now just over 60,000 survive.

After visiting the sanctuary, my partner and I decided to adopt a baby orangutan. We adopted a young male named Sen. Sen had been orphaned when his mother was shot in a palm plantation and left to die.


Sen (our orangutan)

Recently we received our 6 month progress report on Sen and discovered he had grown to a healthy 6.4kg from 1.6kg when he was taken into the sanctuary. He is beginning to feed himself and is interacting with the other orangutans.

Attached to the report was a newsletter from the sanctuary, imagine my disgust when I sighted an article on Safari World in Thailand and their boxing orangutans exhibitions.

Animals in Captivity at Safari World


Apparently Sepilok ran a campaign in 2006/07 that resulted in the orangutans being confiscated and sent to Indonesia and Sepilok in Malaysia. The orangutans are made to participate in boxing and perform in a band they are also severely mistreated and several orangutans have perished at Safari World.

Safari World have resumed their orangutan exhibitions and Sepilok are appealing to people to campaign the Thai government to end the exhibitions. If you are interested in defending the rights of these orangutans you can send a letter to the King of Thailand; Bhumibol Adulyadej to lobby him to take action against Safari World.

Safari World are proudly advertising their orangutan shows on their website and you can contact Safari World directly to urge them to stop the orangutan shows info@safariworld.com


Orangutans at Safari World



Cassie Monahan - The Body Shop Learning & Development Team