- Stock illustration of alligator gars (Courtesy of/Shutterstock)
JAKARTA: A lack of public education about the environment and animal conservation in the country has resulted in jail time for unsuspecting pet owners who are unaware that they have been illegally keeping protected animals as pets for years.
Last week, a resident of Badung regency in Bali named I Nyoman Sukena broke down in tears after prosecutors demanded a five-year prison sentence for him for keeping four Javan porcupines (Hystrix javanica) in his home.
The Javan porcupine is a species of Old World porcupine that is endemic to Indonesia. Its population has been dwindling over the years and in 2018 the Environmental and Forestry Ministry classified it as a protected species.
During his trial at Denpasar District Court, Sukena insisted that he was not aware that the animal was protected.
The 38-year-old said his father-in-law gave him two Javan porcupines five years ago after catching them destroying his crops.
Sukena then kept them as pets and the animals eventually gave birth to two others.
The Bali Police showed up at Nyoman’s house on March 4 after receiving reports from local residents. He was eventually arrested for violating Article 21 of the 1990 Natural Resources and Ecosystem Conservation Law.
The police also confiscated the porcupines.
Videos of Sukena crying after his trial last week made rounds on social media, sparking a backlash from the public who argued that he was punished "too harshly" for simply unknowingly taking care of a protected species.
Several people filed a motion to the district court to suspend Sukena's detention and on Thursday he was released under house arrest.
Sukena is not the only person who is facing jail time for inadvertently keeping prohibited animals as pets.
Piyono, a 61 year old man from Malang, East Java, was sentenced to five months in prison on Monday for keeping five alligator gars in his fishing pond.
The alligator gar is a carnivorous mega fish that is native to North America.
Indonesia bans the trade, possession and the release of the fish into the wild since it is considered invasive outside of its original habitat.
Alligator gars are top predators that can cause problems in non-native habitats by preying on native species including fish, small mammals, turtles and sea fowl, eventually disrupting the ecosystem.
Piyono said that he bought the fish in 2008, having zero idea that it was illegal since the fish were readily available in a lot of pet stores in Malang.
Malang District Court found him guilty of violating Article 88 of the 2024 Fisheries Law.
Many have criticised Piyono's five-month sentence, arguing that it was unfair since no pet store owners who sold alligator gars have been arrested by authorities so far.
Lawmaker Gilang Dhielfararez of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) said that jail time should be "the last option" for pet owners who unknowingly keep illegal or protected animals.
"Seeing people facing imprisonment because they don't know that they are keeping rare animals really hurts the public's sense of justice," he said on Wednesday, as reported by Kompas.com.
Gilang further argued that these cases should be resolved through a restorative justice mechanism such as by imposing fines on owners of illegal pets.
Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) director Zenzi Suhadi said authorities should adopt a better approach to resolve such cases.
"I think only pet owners who get their illegal pets through hunting should face jail. The rest should not, especially if they help breed endangered or protected species," Zenzi told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
The fact that authorities were focusing on imprisoning pet owners showed that they have misguided conceptions about environmental conservation, he went on.
"Authorities focus on protecting one or two Javanese porcupines while they allow mega corporations to cut down millions of hectares of forest to make oil palm plantations and to mine coal. Imagine how many Javanese porcupines and other protected species are destroyed in the process”.
Following the cases, the Environmental and Forestry Ministry said that it would intensify public information efforts about the keeping of protected animals and provide assistance and uphold law enforcement when necessary. - The Jakarta Post/ANN
