AN ORANGUTAN who was found chained up without shelter in the rain living has been rescued by an animal charity.

Japik was found soaking and shivering perched on a plank trying to hide from the rain under an old jacket in the village of Balai Pinang Vilage in Borneo.

She was rescued by charity workers from International Animal Rescue (IAR), based in Uckfield, after she had been sold as a pet by a hunter who had killed her mother.

Alan Knight, chief executive of International Animal Rescue, said: “It was pouring with rain when our team arrived on the scene and at first they couldn’t see Japik. They spotted what they thought was a pile of old rags on the plank but then, when they saw it moving, they knew they had found her. "

"The poor orangutan couldn’t escape from the rain and was cold and drenched by the time we reached her.

"What a miserable existence for any animal, to be trapped on a wooden plank, unable to display any natural behaviour and completely exposed to the burning sun and the driving rain.

"The chain was so short that she could only move a couple of feet on either side of the tree. Her owner may never have intended to make her suffer but suffer she certainly did.”

Japik's owner received her from his brother and admitted he had known for some time it was illegal to keep an orangutan as a pet.

He said once he found out about IAR he contacted their rescue and rehabilitation centre who came to collect her.

Mr Knight said: "Japik is yet another orangutan in a long line that our team has rescued recently.

"In many cases the treatment they receive as people’s pets is the result of ignorance rather than a deliberate act of cruelty.

"However, the outcome for the animals is the same. The orangutans we rescue have generally been fed a completely unsuitable diet and are suffering from a range of illnesses as a result.

"Plus they have been kept in terrible conditions, chained up like Japik or caged for years on end.

"Some are also suffering from severe psychological damage as a result of the trauma of being captured and kept in captivity."