Source : Jakarta Globe, 18 Mar '09
By : Ismira Lutfia
  

	A jaguar languishes in a cage in East Jakarta. (Ismira Lutfia, JG)

A three-month old jaguar was among the many caged animals recently on display next to a railroad in Buaran, East Jakarta.

The jaguar, originally from South America, is listed as an endangered species by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service and under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, which Indonesia ratified in 1978.

CITES prohibits the international trade in jaguars, except for noncommercial purposes such as scientific research.

“But the laws don’t provide adequate legal grounds to arrest animal traders who deal in protected animals that aren’t native to Indonesia,” said Pramudya Harzani, a spokesman for the Jakarta Animal Aid Network.

Pramudya said CITES had only been ratified by the government, without an accompanying law to prosecute rogue traders.

The jaguar’s cage, tucked among cages containing dogs and boa constrictors, sat across the railroad from another line of cages containing a wild boar, dogs, other snakes and long-tailed and pigtail macaques — all in poor living conditions.

The animals belong to a man named Bidut, a veteran animal trader who sells wild and exotic animals as pets or for consumption in traditional medicine.

Wiro, a former employee and neighbor of Bidut, said the male jaguar was part of the animal trader’s “collection” and was purchased for about Rp 50 million ($4,200) from an undisclosed person in Bogor.

Irma Hermawati, a coordinator for the Wildlife Advocacy Institution, said that in the absence of such a law, clause 302 of the Criminal Code could be used to file charges related to the mistreatment of animals.

The clause states that the mistreatment of animals is punishable by a fine of Rp 4,500 and a maximum of three months in prison. “But I’d say that nobody has likely been charged in this way,” Irma said.

The Wildlife Advocacy Institution’s reports to the Jatinegara Police on Wednesday failed to yield results. Bidut claims his business sells animals to cure diabetes, skin and respiratory diseases, impotency and other ailments.

“Customers can ask us to kill and skin the animals, or they can take them home alive,” Wiro said.