Vets from Cornwall help orangutan rescue centre

The Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme is currently taking care of 39 orangutans

Two vets from Cornwall have delivered medicines and equipment to an orangutan veterinary clinic in Indonesia after it was severely damaged in a landslide.

Dr Nigel Hicks and Sara Fell Hicks, founders of the Orangutan Veterinary Aid (OVAID) charity, travelled to the Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme (SOCP) Centre outside Medan, Sumatra.

They said a landslide destroyed the clinic, its medical supplies and many of the enclosures - and two orangutans have since died.

The couple travelled with fellow vet Dr Loretta Francia and delivered around 235kgs (518lbs) of kit to help care for the 39 critically-endangered rescued Sumatran orangutans at the centre.

OVAID said many of the enclosures were destroyed in the landslide

The equipment included patient critical care monitors, an anaesthetic machine, autoclave, haematology and biochemistry analysers, surgical instruments and laboratory microscope.

Dr Hicks said: "Our focus is to re-equip their clinic facility with everything OVAID has donated over the years.

Dr Nigel Hicks and Sara Fell Hicks, founders of the Orangutan Veterinary Aid charity

"OVAID has drawn on its charity resources to supply the centre's most immediate and pressing needs, but fully re-equipping a new clinic facility is a daunting task and will take a huge sum of money."

He said the charity had launched an appeal with a £25,000 target which could secure equipment and medicines and help the vets "to provide the utmost care for their beloved orangutans under the most difficult and taxing conditions".