Orangutan Airlift Effects Breakup of Mates at S.F. Zoo

Despite protests by animal lovers, a 22-year-old, rust-colored female orangutan was loaded aboard a plane Monday to fly to Philadelphia so she could mate with one of her own kind.

Josephine, a Bornean orangutan, was expected to arrive in Philadelphia aboard a Flying Tigers cargo plane today in hopes that she would eventually mate with Bim, a 15-year-old Bornean orangutan.

The loading was done quietly to avoid protesters, who say Josephine should not be separated from Denny, her present mate, and Violet, their 10-year-old daughter.

“We tried to make the move quietly so we wouldn’t upset her,” said San Francisco Zoo spokeswoman Kathleen Harper.

Denny is a Sumatran orangutan, and because Violet is a hybrid, she is not being allowed to mate, Harper said.

Violet Soo-Hoo, a zoo patron and the namesake of Josephine’s baby, led the opposition when the move was announced.

“Josephine came here when she was a tiny baby, and this is her home” she said. “To put her in a box and send her somewhere else is terribly cruel. Possibly she will die from the transport or from grief and stress afterward.”

An organization called Citizens for a Better Zoo announced late Monday that petitions would be circulated calling for the resignation of Zoo Director Saul Kitchener.