Singapore Zoo's orang utans become Bollywood stars? What a shame! (20050927)
Kudos to Ms Kerry Jewel for highlighting this dubious part of the Singapore Zoo and Night Safari charter to help conserve wildlife.
Reference: - Use, Misuse and Abuse of the Orangutan by the Orangutan Foundation International - SICKENING: ORANG-UTANS FORCED TO FIGHT. An article about orangutan exploitation in Thailand, where orang utans are NOT indigenous. - Orang utans performing for real apes - Center for Orangutan and Chimpanzee Conservation - Orangutan used by Visa in TV advertisement - New Scientist Breaking News - Orang-utans killed for illegal trade More primates in entertainment ref: - This is entertainment? Chimp-sploitation in Hollywood from The Chimpanzee Collaboratory- Goodall Group Calls for Curtain on Ape "Actors" What's the The Jane Goodall Institute - IPPL - International Primate Protection League - Check out Animals In Entertainment by Animal Rights Foundation Of FLorida. - Chimpanzees in Entertainment - Go to SINGAPORE UGLY / Casefile: Cruel Singapore. Hack-care Singapore."How can the zoo's executive director, Ms Fanny Lai, explain the possible conservation value by using an orang-utan in a Bollywood movie? In Australia there is an horrific loss of animal life when smugglers remove threatened birds, marsupials and reptiles out of the country.
Statistics show that for every creature that ends up in an illegal cage, up to five of its relatives perish, either as a part of the capture or in the journey. It is time the public view the illegal slaughter of rare animals in a context that they understand.
Rare animals are in a desperate situation. I imagine that baby orang-utans obtained illegally all over Asia are kept by traders in appalling conditions and many die because of this.
No one would condone such activity. But wait. The Singapore Zoo does promote the use of its animals as actors in movies. So which establishment is worse - the one that houses illegally captured animals or the Singapore Zoo which makes a commercial gain from its exhibits in the name of entertainment?
The orang-utans are living on the edge of extinction, alongside the giant panda, Sumatran tiger, black rhinoceros.
Come on Singapore. You lead the world in so many things. Join the list of zoos around the world which do not let their animals be used as cheap labour in the entertainment industry."
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