Police Found Sunbear Meat Cooked by the Killers!
Three alleged killers of a sunbear whose photo was uploaded on Facebook by a user named Ronal Cristoper were arrested by Kutai Kartanegara (Kukar) Police Department on 25 September 2015. At first, they denied the suspicion. Ronal Christoper, Martinus Belawing, and Markus Lawai said that they did not kill the sunbear; they found it already dead from a boar snare.
They did admit that they disemboweled the sunbear and take its meat to be cooked. These residents of Tabang district, Kukar, also admitted that they uploaded the photo on Facebook using Ronal Cristoper's account.
"They can disclaim it all they want, but the fact that they captioned the photo by 'tangkapan hari ini' ('today's catch') says it all," stated Bayu Sandi, the Coordinator of PROFAUNA Borneo.
A few hours after Ronal posted the photo, he uploaded another photo of his 'prey', a kind of deer which is also a protected species. It is almost impossible for them to escape legal punishment because police investigators found leftovers of sunbear meat cooked at Markus Lawai's house.
Law no.5 of 1990 concerning the Conservation of Living Natural Resource and Its Ecosystem mentions that it is strongly forbidden for anyone to kill or keep/possess protected wildlife species aither dead or alive, including their body parts.
"Although they would not admit killing the sunbear, they can still be charged for having sunbear body parts and eating the meat," explained Bayu Sandi, who has been putting much attention to this case.
The quick response of Kukar PD in finding the sunbear killers was higly appreciated by the public. The positive acknowledgement was shown in the hundreds of comments in PROFAUNA's Facebook page, under a post about the arrest of the killers.
"PROFAUNA and the public thank and appreciate the police's excellent work in enforcing the law to protect the wildlife," said Rosek Nursahid, the founder of PROFAUNA.
Related article: http://www.profauna.net/en/content/breaking-news-three-alleged-sunbear-killers-arrested