Ida Tri Susanti, the college student who caused an uproar recently when she posted photos of herself holding up and preparing to eat dead leopard cats on Facebook, may yet go unpunished for her alleged crime.
The Nature Conservation Agency (BKSDA) in East Java summoned Ida for questioning on Sunday evening and searched through her residence in Lumajang, East Java. But the BKSDA couldn’t charge Ida due to a lack of evidence.
“The information we gathered was that the cats were hunted near Kencong (in East Java) and then they were eaten. There was one piece of evidence in the form of a knife [in Ida’s house], but it’s not a strong enough piece of evidence,” said Sunandar Trigunajasa, head of the BKSDA Region III in East Java, as quoted by Vivanews.
It appears most of the physical evidence has been digested and flushed down the toilet some time ago, as Ida herself previously admitted that she and her family ate the protected animals.
“If it happened a week ago, maybe we would’ve found bones or skin [of the leopard cats]. But it’s been over a month, so it’s hard for us to find physical evidence of the cats,” Sunandar said.
Ida posted the controversial photos on September 12. She recently took down the photos after receiving a barrage of hateful comments on Facebook. It remains to be seen if authorities can use screenshots of the photos as evidence that Ida killed the leopard cats.
If found guilty, Ida could face a maximum 5 years sentence for killing protected wildlife
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