164 protected animals seized from man in Bali

Wahyoe Boediwardhana, Denpasar

The Bali Natural Resources Conservation Body (BKSDA) raided on Friday four separate houses and a meat processing factory in Sanur and Denpasar and seized 164 rare species in what is believed to be the single largest seizure of rare animals in Bali to date.

All the rare species -- including lions, tigers and crocodiles -- belonged to one person, Kuskamto, a well-known processed meat businessman in Bali.

The high-powered BKSDA team -- with 40 personnel and six trucks and led by veterinarian Wita Widiadani -- seized the rare and protected animals from Sukamto's four houses in the Sanur area and downtown Denpasar. While the rest were taken from Kuskamto's meat factory on Jl. Diponegoro.

Following the confiscation, the BKSDA took the animals to its 30-hectare Animal Rehabilitation Center in Tabanan, Bali.

"At the center, the rare animals will have proper medical treatment," said Wayan Wirayatna, the coordinator of animal rights group Pro Fauna in Bali, who took part in the raid.

Separately, Kuskamto claimed that he was not guilty. He insisted that he had proper licenses from the BKSDA to raise the protected animals. He admitted, though, that some of the licenses had expired, but he intended to renew them soon.

Wayan said that if the businessman were proven guilty, he could be sentenced to five years in jail or fined Rp 100 million (US$ 10.526) for violating Law No.5/1990 on the Conservation of Natural Resources and its Ecosystem.

Before the raid on Friday, the BKSDA had only seized between two to five protected animals, on average, per month from various groups and individuals in Bali.

Some of the rare animals seized from Kuskamto

- lions (panthera leo)

- tigers (panthera tigris)

- ligers (crossed breeding between lion and tiger)

- honey bears (helarctos malaynus)

- orangutans (pongo pygmaeus mawas)

- crocodiles (crocodylus novaeguinaeae)

- Nias myna birds (Gracula religiosa robusta)

- Flores myna birds (Gracula religiosa mertensi)

- pythons (python molurus)

- deers (cervus timorensis)

- sea hawks (pandionidae)

source: Bali BKSDA