Our petition to help orangutans at the Shangri-la Rasa Ria resort has gathered over a thousand signatures, meaning the Sabah Wildlife Department has received more than one thousand emails regarding the treatment of orangutans at Rasa Ria. The pressure is piling.
Another letter from a supporter has been published to demand that we get the answers we have been patiently waiting for.
Read this letter and you will agree that young, orphan orangutans belong in a rehabilitation centre, not in a luxury hotel.
Orphaned orangutan should be in Sepilok
FMT LETTER: From Jane, via e-mail
Having visited Shangri-La’s Rasa Ria in Sabah, I can confirm that it is a superior resort with exceptionally high standards and guests are treated in a first class manner. Anyone who has stayed at a conference there can confirm this.
But, why does a 5* beach resort keep orangutans? I have never fathomed what the point of this exercise is? Is the issue of orangutan conservation and protection really such a high priority for the majority of international tourists who stay at 5* establishments, that they are desperate to visit the ones who are kept there?
I would urge the Sabah Minister of Tourism, Culture and Environment, Masidi Manjun, to please ask the Sabah Wildlife Department to answer the many concerns posed by Malaysian based NGO, Friends of the Orangutans, which has asked repeated questions about the orangutans at Rasa Ria which have so far been ignored.
For example, why was Tenten, the orphaned orangutan, sent to a holiday resort rather than being kept at Sepilok where there would appear to be a better chance of successful rehabilitaion for this young ape? What happened to Tenten’s mother? Was she killed? If so, was anyone prosecuted for the killing?
Can the SWD also please inform concerned people about what happened to the mothers of other young orphans at Sepilok?
Is there a full time vet at Rasa Ria? A three-year-old orangutan named Wulan, rescued by plantation workers on the East Coast of Sabah, was also recently sent to Rasa Ria. Again, why? And does anyone know what happened to Wulan’s mother?
Rasa Ria is a 5* resort that puts its Western equivalents to shame. But what good is that to orangutans? My view is that orangutans are neither needed or required to be sent there.
Why not keep them at Sepilok where they can, hopefully, begin the long rehabilitaion process which may eventually lead to their release and freedom? Isn’t that what anyone who cares about orangutans would advocate?
Please do sign and share the Rasa Rasa petition:
http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/reveal-treatment-of-orangutans-at-rasa-ria-resort
Thank you for caring.
“The measure of a society can be how well its people treat its animals.” ~Mohandas Gandhi