22 June– 5 July 2011 Jakarta Expat
4
Interesting Expats
JAAN volunteers weighing raptor eagles on Kotok Island
Femke den Haas’ world
Femke helping a macaque in Tanjung Priok
One of JAAN’s lucky rescued baby sea turtles
Femke’s Fight for Animal Rights F emke den Haas deserves her own television show. When someone stumbles on baby sea turtles being sold illegally at a local market, Haas is the first person on the scene. When the Forestry Ministry busts a black market orangutan syndicate in Sumatra or there’s a crocodile eating villagers in a remote area in Kalimantan, it’s Haas, one of the original founders of Jakarta Animal Aid Network (JAAN), who’s packing her bags in the middle of the night and boarding a plane. “We go there and we will try and help with the rescue and make sure that those animals end up in a proper rehabilitation centre … then we come back to Jakarta,” says Haas, from inside a sweltering open-air office on the second floor of JAAN headquarters on Jalan Kemang Timor Raya No.17 in South Jakarta. For being one of Indonesia’s preeminent rescue and rehabilitation programmes, JAAN volunteers and employees enjoy Spartan surroundings. Downstairs in the temporary rescue centre and vet clinic of the centre things are far better. The dogs waiting for adoption or cats coming out of anaesthesia following sterilisation surgery enjoy cool air conditioning, while
the humans upstairs tap away on their laptops drafting letters, press releases and fastidiously filling out grant request forms so JAAN can keep its doors open.
Haas, who has been living and working in Indonesia since 2002, decided long ago to put animals first. Whether wrangling pythons tangled in fishing lines outside Sukabumi, West Java, or rescuing white-bellied sea eagles in the Thousand Islands and transferring them to the JAAN rehabilitation centre on Kotok Island. But the Dutch national isn’t alone in her quest. Since JAAN was established in 2008, Haas, along with Natalie Stewart and Karin Franken, the two other founders of JAAN and 16 fulltime employees have enlisted the help of hundreds of volunteers, everyone from local school children to international dolphin activist Richard O’Barry, profiled in the 2009 Academy Awardwinning feature documentary “The Cove,” to help improve the general conditions for wildlife living in captivity, establishing rehabilitation programs for animals, pushing for better regulations and the overall enforcement of those regulations. But JAAN is always looking for more people whose passion for
those with four legs, feathers, fins or flippers mirrors that of the founders.
by Hush Petersen
“We need volunteers,” says Haas. “New faces to help monitor the wildlife trade, which means visiting all those horrific places and not many volunteers are capable of doing it. Long-time JAAN volunteers and employees cannot get to these places anymore. They’re targets. They stick out like sore thumbs.”
is in an awkward position because you can’t just go around and release them back into the wild that easily. So you have to keep the dolphins in captivity until there is a proper rehabilitation centre so we’re working on a facility, which is taking a lot of time and is very intense. The only thing that we want to do is release those dolphins that are kept illegally. From any aspect there is no way to justify a travelling show with dolphins.”
If it had not been for a JAAN volunteer no one would have ever known about the tragic travelling dolphin show, based in Central Java. For over two years now, JAAN has been investigating the dolphin trade in Indonesia, even going so far as to enlist the help of Earth Island and Richard O’Barry.
Meanwhile JAAN volunteers here in Jakarta can help by walking dogs or helping before and after the sterilisation surgery, aiding veterinarians and caring for cats after surgery. Currently there are around 35 dogs and 60 cats ready for adoption. Adoption is free as long as you’re willing to wade through the paperwork.
“We found this circus and they’re making them jump through fire. It’s just ridiculous,” says Haas. “Every show has two dolphins and there are three shows going on currently in Java, six dolphins working full-time and the conditions are so poor. They are taking dolphins from the wild and they’re doing this under the name of rescue. They’re saying ‘Oh, these dolphins were caught in the nets and now they need treatment.’ And these poor dolphins. The Forestry Ministry
“Sometimes people see the questionnaire that we make them fill out and they say ‘Oh, never mind.’ The most important thing for us is that we find a good home. Local volunteers can also help out on Kotok Island, Thousand Islands, home to JAAN’s raptor eagle rehabilitation project. Volunteers can come work-hands on, clean the cages, weigh the birds. Day trips leave Ancol from Harbour number Six every morning at 8am for Rp.
200,000 a seat. “We have a raptor rehabilitation centre that houses Brahminy Kites that have been living in captivity or saved from the wildlife trade.” It’s Haas’s role to make sure that after the raptors are rescued and released back into the wild, which includes not only working with the animals but also fighting to protect their habitat, which means recycling, keeping local beaches clean, working with school kids on educational activities explaining why it’s so important to protect nature and the environment and recycling plastics with the local communities. For example, on Karimun Jawa, Central Java and Thousand Islands where JAAN is working hard with the local community to educate the local community about the dangers plastics cause to the local wildlife, such as sea turtles and dolphins. This year with the help of newly recruited volunteers interested in helping improve the lives of Indonesia’s vast wildlife, JAAN hopes to start a dolphin database where volunteers will help spot dolphins, identify them. There is still a lot of data lacking on dolphins in Indonesia. ■ For more info: www.jakartaanimalaid.com