by Nadine Freischlad on
4 January 2019
As Indonesia cracks down on the
illegal wildlife trade, it is struggling to deal with the influx of animals
confiscated from traffickers.
Birds are among the most
trafficked creatures. Due to a lack of rehabilitation centers, where they would
slowly be prepared for life in the wild, many birds are released prematurely.
That seems to have been the case
with a group of cockatoos that were handed into the state after the infamous
“water bottle bust” of 2015, in which a smuggler was caught with 23
yellow-crested cockatoos stuffed into plastic water bottles in his luggage.
JAKARTA — In May 2015, a wildlife
smuggler was arrested at an Indonesian port. He had attempted to transport
nearly two dozen yellow-crested cockatoos, stuffed in plastic water bottles,
aboard a passenger ship.
The rare birds in their tiny
confinements looked barely alive; their feathers were dirty and sticky. They
were likely on their way to local markets or international trade networks, to
be sold as pets.
This particular bust drew a lot
of attention because it expressed the cruelty of animal trafficking in one
striking image. It gave rise to a viral campaign that saw dozens of Indonesians
turn in their pet cockatoos to the government. Some of the birds had been kept
as pets for decades.
In Indonesia, it is illegal to
keep, kill or sell a yellow-crested cockatoo (Cacatua sulphurea) that has been
caught in the wild. And yet, the bird, along with a host of other protected
species, is widely trafficked in the country, one of the most biodiverse on
Earth.
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