Photo by Sutanta Aditya http://www.sutantaaditya.net/
An orangutan died after being found on a palm oil plantation in Borneo with 40 air rifle pellets in her body.
She was found inside a palm oil plantation in the Central Kalimantan province, the third largest province in Indonesia that's covered in dense tropical rainforest and peatland swamps, and internationally acknowledged as a sanctuary for the endangered orangutan.
It's a sanctuary no longer. As corporations move in to transform the lush forest into an oil palm monoculture, they are displacing people and now, murdering the endangered animals who call the rainforest home.
Her right upper leg was also broken and maggots were found inside her open wounds. A team of medics tried to save her life but tragically, she couldn't hold on.
This orangutan died because of the relentless greed of massive corporations, who will grow, trade, and buy the cheapest palm oil possible in order to boost their profits, illegally clearcutting paradise as they do it.
We know we can stop these corporations, because we've already pushed global giants like Kellogg's, Krispy Kreme, McDonalds and many more to stop destroying the rainforest. We're getting ready to scale up our efforts and win against even more companies in 2016, but we need your help to do it.
Please, chip in now and support our palm oil campaign. We must put an end to this devastation.
She's not the only one to have died. Orangutans are routinely killed and injured in the quest for the cheapest palm oil. That's why SumOfUs campaigned on palm oil last year, and it's one of our major campaigning issues for 2016.
This year, together, we've already made waves.
A whopping 12,000 of us blasted PepsiCo on Facebook and Twitter during the US's biggest sporting event of the year, demanding that it close the massive loopholes in its palm oil policy. Last month, we turned up to Starbucks' original store in Seattle, and represented the voices of over 300,000 SumOfUs members who demanded that Starbucks take deforestation off its menu. Because of what we did together, Starbucks has a new commitment to a stronger palm oil policy.
In the next six months we will be scaling up our campaign against PepsiCo. With our friends at Rainforest Action Network, we'll be targeting and calling out top decision-makers in the company like its CEO, jamming PepsiCo's brand, and holding stunts outside key locations. We're also doubling down on Unilever, pressuring it to source palm oil in a responsible manner.
These acts will save the lives of countless animals, preserve the livelihoods of local communities, and stop carbon emissions from deforestation. But it won't happen without people willing to take action like you.
We have a full team dedicated to stopping these companies from inflicting further damage, but we need the support of SumOfUs members to carry on. If we sit on the sidelines, one by one more animals will be sacrificed.
We don't have long -- these species sit on the brink of extinction already. We can't let that happen. If companies aren't ready to take responsibility, it's our job to make them.
Please, chip in now and support our palm oil campaign. Together, we can bring an end to this senseless violence and destruction.