Plight of Orangutan in South Africa Zoo Draws Petitions, Legal Action

A KwaZulu-Natal SPCA says it has been overwhelmed with support to save a 36-year-old female orangutan that has been languishing away – a “caged tragedy” – in a zoo near Pietermaritzburg reportedly owned by circus owner Brian Boswell.

“We thank you for your responses to our plea for her release,” the Kloof and Highway SPCA in Durban said on its Facebook page on Tuesday, and indicated how people could help save the orangutan named Opal. She is being kept in the Natal Zoological Gardens just outside Pietermaritzburg, which is apparently owned by Boswell, who also owns Brian Boswell Circus.

The SPCA also said that it would be taking legal action.

“For years, our organisation, as well as others, have been appealing to Mr Boswell. He is unwilling to see the cruelty and suffering taking place at his facility. We are left with no option but to prepare criminal charges in terms of the Animals Protection Act, to have Opal relocated to Monkeyworld in the United Kingdom.”

As a result of the SPCA’s action, at least two petitions have started online calling for Opal to be saved. One of them is by change.org. The other says “Opal the Orangutan has spent 36 lonely years in her cage. Help her get to a sanctuary!”

Both petitions quote an SPCA inspector who called Opal’s situation “a caged tragedy”. He said, “As an Inspector at the Kloof and Highway SPCA, I have been involved in assessing the well-being of the caged animals in this zoo. This task never fails to wrench my emotions, leaving me desperate to find some refuge for them, which would allow far better quality of life. At the very least, a semblance of nature.”

He said that orangutans are one of the most intelligent primates, with parents highly devoted to their offspring. He focused on Opal’s terrible conditions at the zoo.

“Each day she is released from her sleeping cage into her daytime cell. There on a meagre patch of grass with a makeshift ‘Jungle Gym’ of poles, she spends every day of her life.”

He carried on, “My personal reactions to my visits to see Opal & the other caged animals in this establishment are frustration, outrage, heartache & anger. From what we have been told, Opal did have a mate, & a baby boy which died of Tuberculosis. She has known the companionship of her own kind. She has loved & nurtured a baby. Now her empty eyes see only humans who stare, laugh & point fingers at her. They mean no harm; they do not understand her suffering. She is alone with crowds staring. A caged tragedy.”

This is not the only controversy that has hit the Boswell circus in recent years. A news report this week said that Boswell’s wife, daughter and an elephant handler had appeared in a Port Elizabeth court last week after a 2012 incident where elephants in their charge were allegedly chained and beaten.