Indonesian family urges justice for man killed by boss’ tiger as case highlights exotic animal trade
- Suprianda was mauled to death last week while feeding his employer’s pet, which authorities suspect is a Sumatran tiger
- But if DNA tests prove otherwise, the boss could escape a charge of keeping a critically endangered animal
When Indonesian domestic worker Suprianda did not return home last Saturday after feeding his employer’s pet tiger, his wife went looking for him and met a grisly sight.
The 27-year-old man lay dead in the caged enclosure that housed the 1.5-metre-long reptile at his employer’s home in Samarinda, East Kalimantan.
“He was supposed to feed the tiger at 10.30am, but he wasn’t home when it was past noon. So I went to check and saw him lying in the tiger’s cage with blood all over him,” said his wife Suwarni, who is heavily pregnant.
For three years, Suprianda had acted as an animal keeper for Andre Sugianto, a timber tycoon and gym owner, until the fateful day when the tiger mauled him to death.
“This is our first case in five years of a private citizen keeping what we suspect to be a protected animal,” Ari Wibawanto, head of the East Kalimantan Natural Resources Conservation Agency, told This Week In Asia.
