Published 18:23 IST, November 30th 2019
Orangutan blinded after being shot 24 times with air rifle in Indonesia
Orangutan shot 24 times and blinded by air rifle. Suspected to have been shot by poachers. Vets removed 16 pellets from the head alone. Not a new occurrence.
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Orangutan in Aceh from Indonesia has been blinded and was left with horrendous injuries after he was shot at least 24 times with an air rifle. The people who look after the poor creature were left trying to take out 16 bullets from the Orangutan's head alone. It is believed that the Orangutan was shot by poachers.
Blinded by bullets
The Orangutan's rescuers named him Paguh, after the sickening attack he was transported by his rescuers to the Orangutan rehabilitation centre in Northern Sumatra. It was in the rehabilitation centre that they discovered how serious Paguh's injuries were and that they would have to remove all the pieces of shrapnel still inside Paguh.
One of the vets who removed an astounding 16 pellets from Paguh's head said that he found four in his arms, three in his hip and one in his gut which makes 24 in total. Even with all their best efforts, the vets could not get all the pellets out and unfortunately had to leave 13 pellets inside Puguh.
While Paguh is in stable condition now, but the doctors realised that due to his injuries he was left completely blind and decided that any further attempt to remove the pellets from his head would only lead to further damage. Unfortunately, the story of Puguh is not new, the same conservatory had treated an Orangutan thas was shot 74 times by an air rifle. The doctors had managed to remove 10 pellets out of the 74 pellets that were inside her and thankfully she managed to survive. In 2015 an Orangutan died from pellet wounds while being transported to a rehab centre.
Even though shooting an Orangutan is illegal and carries a hefty fine, conservative agencies still believe that not enough is being done to protect the animals.
17:55 IST, November 30th 2019