Posted on: Friday, February 22, 2002

Hilo orangutan refuge short of money

By Hugh Clark
Advertiser Big Island Bureau

HILO, Hawai'i — Hilo's orangutan sanctuary is foundering financially, and the first animal to have been placed there is going to be sent back to the Mainland.

Big Island officials confirmed Orangutan Foundation International has been unable to raise the $5.75 million needed to pay for the reserve next to Hawai'i County's Pana'ewa Rainforest Zoo.

Ground was broken Sept. 24 for the 28-acre refuge.

However, money dried up after the Sept. 11 attacks, according to the Los Angeles-based non-profit group.

So Rusti, a 22-year-old primate who was moved to Honolulu in 1997 from New Jersey, now is headed to an undisclosed site in Florida because his temporary "visa" at Honolulu Zoo is expiring.

Andy Levin, a major backer of the project when he was in the state Senate, confirmed the money problems.

He is now an executive assistant to Mayor Harry Kim and represented Kim at the ground-breaking program.

The sanctuary was to have housed 20 orangutans that were abandoned or mistreated after being brought to the western world from Indonesia.

The foundation is led by Dr. Birute Galdikas, who saw Hilo's climate as ideal for the animals. She also has relatives residing here.