Punks, Pets and Poachers
SYNOPSIS:
Meet Pram and Femke, Indonesia’s most radical animal avengers who tackle everything - from stray cats to poached tigers. We follow this charismatic duo and their young and anarchic team in Jakarta as they work tirelessly to save animals, across Indonesia and beyond.
Pram and Femke are fearless. When it comes to saving animals, nothing is off limits. They are active undercover agents working with police to stop the illegal animal trade. They’ve set up a string of veterinary clinics to help treat the thousands of suffering pets and strays that roam the city’s hectic streets. They’ve built a unique rehabilitation sanctuary for raptors, reptiles and primates on an idyllic tropical island in the Javan Sea. They are well known activists pooling help from the community to stop whaling vessels from entering Indonesian ports. They help save turtles, dolphins, the reefs they inhabit and pretty much any indigenous animal that is in danger. They’re ingenious too, raising money by making and selling t-shirts, shopping bags, and raincoats from the rubbish they have cleared from the sea.
Above all they are characters. Pram is a Sumatran man in his late 20s, an animal lover, active Muslim, bassist in a punk band, and a massive fan of South Park. Femke is a Dutch veterinary nurse and environmentalist who has made Indonesia her home and is the passionate and dedicated founder of the Jakarta Animal Aid Network, JAAN.
Style and Content:
The series will be fast paced, eccentric and observational in style, reflecting the central characters and the 21st Century urban environment in which they carry out their work. The series narrative will reveal the trials and tribulations of animal welfare in Indonesia and Pram and Femke’s fight to bring wider attention to the abuses of animals, the illegal poaching trade and the environmental catastrophes that are effecting one of the world’s most beautiful but troubled regions.
Femke and Pram have learnt to expect the unexpected and to think on their feet. Their work can take them anywhere and no two days are ever the same. They might be investigating reports of a pet orangutan in a block of flats in Jakarta, working undercover with the local police force to smash a poaching ring or travelling into the countryside to release a group of monkeys back into the wild.
For each episode, the main narrative arc will be based around the big, complex story of the day – a rescue, release or undercover project. This story will be intercut with more self contained, straightforward stories about the day-to-day running of their veterinary clinics or rescue centres and sanctuaries. And in between all of this we’ll find out more about Femke, Pram, and their team as we follow the exploits of their punk band or even as they get a new animal tattoo to prove their dedication to the cause.
Every programme is guaranteed to capture the hectic buzz and wide variety of people, places, and animals that Femke, Pram and their team come into contact with every day of the year.
Possible storylines: Current and Future
Working NOW on rescuing animals caught up in the Merapi Volcano explosion
• Evacuating the thousands of cows and calves (some badly burned, others orphaned, many unable to walk) from the slopes of the volcano.
• Rescuing entire troops of macaque monkeys that are reliant on food from tourists.
Going to abandoned villages to rescue the many animals left behind.
Working undercover and police raids (Jakarta is an international hub of illegal trade in wildlife for pets and parts.
Rescue and rehab of Brahminy Kites – helping to find their wings and learn to fly
Sea Turtle and Coral Reef Protection Program
Rescue and release of macaques who’ve grown too big and troublesome for their former owners
Working with International NGO’s – Pram and Femke are the “go to guys” in the Indonesian region for a large number of NGO’s including;
• Primates Helping Primates
• Orangutan Outreach
• Care for the Wild
• Sea Shepherd
• SPANA (Society for the Protection of Animals Abroad)
• Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation
• COP (Centre for Orangutan Protection)
Pram Biog.
Pram was born in the early 80s on the island of Sumatra. Rebellious from an early age, Pram learnt to speak English by watching cartoons as a child. He’d skive school and sneak to his friend’s house to watch countless episodes of Tin-Tin on TV. When he was 18, Pram left home for Jakarta, already obsessed with animals and looking for ways to follow a career that allowed him to work protecting them. Once in the city he quickly made friends with a group of punk musicians and tattoo artists, and he now plays bass in the band. He got a job at a rescue centre, met Femke, and the two became firm friends. Pram’s since been to every corner of Indonesia helping animals. He’s rescued orangutans from forest fires, infiltrated networks of poachers catching birds of paradise in remote parts of Papua, and wrestled bears and crocodiles. He’s adorned his body with tattoos of the animals he’s saved. Last year he met and fell in love with Miriam van Bos, a Dutch volunteer who came to work at JAAN, and the two are now engaged.
Pram was born in the early 80s on the island of Sumatra. Rebellious from an early age, Pram learnt to speak English by watching cartoons as a child. He’d skive school and sneak to his friend’s house to watch countless episodes of Tin-Tin on TV. When he was 18, Pram left home for Jakarta, already obsessed with animals and looking for ways to follow a career that allowed him to work protecting them. Once in the city he quickly made friends with a group of punk musicians and tattoo artists, and he now plays bass in the band. He got a job at a rescue centre, met Femke, and the two became firm friends. Pram’s since been to every corner of Indonesia helping animals. He’s rescued orangutans from forest fires, infiltrated networks of poachers catching birds of paradise in remote parts of Papua, and wrestled bears and crocodiles. He’s adorned his body with tattoos of the animals he’s saved. Last year he met and fell in love with Miriam van Bos, a Dutch volunteer who came to work at JAAN, and the two are now engaged.
Femke Biog.
Femke Den Haas is a Dutch National born in 1977 in Yaoende, Cameroon. She first got involved in Indonesian wildlife when she was just 17 and still at school, when she traveled to the island of Borneo to help with the rescue of seventy orangutans. Back in Holland, she became involved in several animal rescue projects and learnt that most of the illegally traded primates in Europe mainly came from Indonesia. In 2002 she returned to Indonesia, with the intention of tackling the problem at its source. Unable to face leaving him behind, she went to the expense of paying for her beloved dog Aso – short for anti-social – to accompany her. Before setting up JAAN she worked with another wildlife charity in West Jakarta, and it was here that she met and married her Indonesian husband, Sudarno.
Femke Den Haas is a Dutch National born in 1977 in Yaoende, Cameroon. She first got involved in Indonesian wildlife when she was just 17 and still at school, when she traveled to the island of Borneo to help with the rescue of seventy orangutans. Back in Holland, she became involved in several animal rescue projects and learnt that most of the illegally traded primates in Europe mainly came from Indonesia. In 2002 she returned to Indonesia, with the intention of tackling the problem at its source. Unable to face leaving him behind, she went to the expense of paying for her beloved dog Aso – short for anti-social – to accompany her. Before setting up JAAN she worked with another wildlife charity in West Jakarta, and it was here that she met and married her Indonesian husband, Sudarno.