Indonesian police arrest orangutan killers

Indonesian police said Wednesday they have arrested two plantation workers for killing 20 endangered orangutans and other apes as pest control for palm oil companies. The pair, arrested last week, confessed to shooting the primates out of trees and chasing them with dogs in East Kalimantan province, police spokesman Saud Usman Nasution told AFP. "They chased the orangutans by shooting them with airguns. When they fell (from the trees), they were chased by teams of about a dozen dogs," he said. He did not name the palm oil company the pair was working for, but said they were paid one million rupiah ($111) for each dead orangutan and 200,000 rupiah for every monkey killed. Nasution said that the pair, who had confessed to killing about 20 orangutans and other primates since 2008, were in police custody and faced five-year jail terms and fines of 100 million rupiah each. Experts say there are about 50,000 to 60,000 orangutans left in the wild, 80 percent of them in Indonesia and the rest in Malaysia. They are faced with extinction due to poaching and the rapid destruction of their habitat. Palm oil is a key ingredient in soap and everyday foods ranging from peanut butter to sweets but its cultivation is considered one of the biggest threats to the world's dwindling rainforests.