Disturbing Videos Put Pressure On Indonesian Lawmakers

April 16th, 2018

Featured Image Credit: Video Screenshot
By Laura O’Brien

After multiple videos of poor conditions for zoo animals in Indonesia have gone viral, a growing number of activists and social media users have called for stricter animal rights legislation and enforcement in Indonesian zoos. One of the most recent videos shows a man throwing a lit cigarette to an orangutan, which then began to smoke it.

One of the most famous videos capturing animal welfare violations at an Indonesian zoo is a video of several emaciated sun bears begging for food. The disturbing video produced a public outcry in 2017, which led Siti Nurbaya Bakar, Indonesia’s Environment and Forestry Minister, to declare that standardized regulation regarding animal welfare is necessary to prevent such cruelty.

Recently, there have been multiple legislative and policy changes in Indonesia, with the goal of reducing animal cruelty. The governor of Java announced a ban on the brutal staged fights between dogs and boars called “abu bagong” in response to a public outcry after Scorpion Foundation, a partner of Animals Asia, released a horrific video of one of the fights. One zoo announced that it would no longer provide tourists with the opportunity to take selfies with baby orangutans, and another announced that it would end its bear performances, where the famished bears were forced to perform tricks for morsels of food. Both zoo policy changes came after videos of their former practices were shared on social media.

Despite the positive changes, unimaginable animal suffering still occurs as a result of human practices in Indonesian zoos, and further legislation is necessary to put an end to the cruelty. Dolphins are still used in traveling circuses which force the dolphins to lay outside of water, where they struggle for breath, as other animals perform. Then, they are strapped into what Animal Asia describes as “coffin-sized” boxes in order to fly the cetaceans from one location to another. The dolphins are often subjected to unsanitary living spaces, which can cause infection and illness. With disturbing videos still coming out of Indonesian zoos and markets, animal rights activists are continuing to push for more exposure and better laws regarding animal welfare.

Disturbing Videos Put Pressure On Indonesian Lawmakers

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