An orangutan who was forced to become a sex slave and sleep with men on a daily basis has finally undergone rehabilitation after it was rescued from its kidnapper in an Indonesian village.
The endangered Bornean orangutan named, Pony, was reportedly discovered in February 2003 inside a darkened room in the village of Kareng Pangi, Central Kalimantan chained to a wall and lying on a mattress.
The orangutan who was taken away from her mother when she was a baby, was abused for years by local palm oil farmers coming into the village to pay £2 each to have sex with her.
According to Mai Online, the brothel madam who kept her in the dark room treated her extremely harshly, shaved her every two days and forced her to wear perfume and makeup. She was even taught to perform sex acts on demand for her customers.
Due to the harsh treatments on Pony, whenever her brothel madam who kept her captive visited her in a rescue centre, she would ‘scream and defecate’ continually.
Michelle Desilets, director of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation UK when Pony was rescued, told The Mirror: ‘My friend Lone [Droscher-Nielson], who rescued Pony, had to bring in 30 army officers when she was seized.
‘Afterwards, the madam visited Pony on a monthly arrangement to reduce the risk of retribution.
‘But every time Pony saw her she would scream and defecate again and again. We were forced to increase security and put a stop to the visits.’
Lone Droscher-Nielson, who was part of the team who rescued Pony in 2003, told the Sun: ‘When I found that she was used for prostitution and not just a pet I was horrified.
‘Perhaps in my naivety I had never thought it humanly possible to do such a thing to an animal.’
While Michelle Desilets, director of the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation, told VICE back in 2007: ‘They [the farm workers] would come in especially for [her].
‘You could choose a human if you preferred, but it was a novelty for many of the men to have sex with an orangutan.’
According to Michelle, her owners were reluctant to let Pony go when the team initially tried to rescue her and even threatened them with machetes.
‘She was being used as a sex slave,’ Michelle added, ‘She was probably about six or seven years old when we rescued her, but she had been held captive by the madam for a long time.’
He explained that it took 35 policemen armed with AK-47s going in there and demanding that they hand over Pony. From the brothel, she was taken to a nearby orangutan sanctuary run by the Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation.
She slowly recovered and male carers were slowly introduced to her,’ Lone continued, ‘She didn’t seem to be afraid of them anymore and she was happy with any company she could have. Eventually, she was moved to one of the islands.’
According to the report, Pony is now in good health 15 years on from her ordeal, and now lives in an enclosure in Nyaru Menteng Rehabilitation Centre with seven other orangutans.
