It’s fair to say that people know that sometimes animals are treated horribly and forced to live in poor conditions, through no fault of their own.
Sometimes, however, these animals manage to get free from their circumstances and human rescuers can help rehabilitate them into a better quality of life.
That’s what’s happened with Budi.
Budi is an orangutan who was found living in a chicken cage in Indonesia. He was one year old already. The poor thing was surviving off of condensed milk.
His quality of life was so bad, it’s a miracle he survived at all. Because of his poor treatment, he didn’t have the energy to move around the way orangutans normally do.
Budi wasn’t growing the way he should have been.
Budi spent his first year of life in this situation and almost died from these horrible living conditions.
Thankfully, International Animal Rescue heard of him.
As soon as they heard what was happening to this poor baby, they rescued him and brought him to a treatment center.
Despite doing all that they could, the rescuers still worried that the baby would not survive.
Budi had developed severe deformities from his time in the small cage. His body and limbs were swollen from lack of movement.
Budi couldn’t even sit upright.
With the help of the loving care of his rescuers, Budi has been able to live a far better life.
It was a long road to recovery.
When the veterinarians tried to move him at first, he would cry out in pain. The vets and the rescuers had to treat him with utmost care and delicacy because so many movements were painful for him.
They brought him to International Animal Rescue’s orangutan care center. There, he could be treated by experts on his species and also live with animals like himself.
Budi is not yet out of the woods.
But his story shows just how important it is to be gentle with our animal friends.
Budi now lives around other orangutans and has a better quality of life. Although he still requires extreme care and a lot of help, rescuers believed that he’ll be able to survive his circumstances.
He likely would not be able to survive without their help, so it’s wonderful that they found him when they did.
Today, Budi has come far from his former self.
In the years since the IAR rescued Budi, he has grown and strengthened a lot. Here’s what the IAR has to say about him now:
“Budi is growing up fast and is almost unrecognizable from the frail, ill orangutan who arrived at the centre many years ago. Budi loves his forest fruit and his lips are often stained bright red from eating so many!…Now Budi is staying in Forest School for 24 hours a day, he is learning how to survive on his own and is a brilliant candidate for eventual release back in to the wild.
Budi is showing fantastic progress but he still has a long way to go. The keepers have a lot of confidence in him as he has a fantastic ability to learn and willingness to never give up…His keepers have a lot of confidence in him and his skillset has developed beyond anything they would expect at this stage of rehabilitation. Budi is always spotted exploring high in the trees on his own – solo exploration is a very natural male orangutan behaviour.”
Maybe one day Budi will be released back into the wild and free to live the life he was always meant to.
This team of rescuers has worked hard to help this innocent orangutan rebuild his strength and quality of life. It’s a miracle that they found him at all and it’s even better that his recovery has been so huge.
See Budi’s heartwarming rescue in the video below!
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