Papuan protest
An activist, with
her face painted in
the colours of the
separatist Morning
Star flag, shouts
slogans during a
rally near the
presidential palace
in Jakarta,
Indonesia,
yesterday. A group
of West Papuan
students staged the
protest against
racism and called
for independence
for their region
which is Indonesia’s
largest province.Vegan parents avoid jail for
starving baby on strict diet
By Andrew QuinnAN Australian couple who fed their
baby daughter a strict vegan diet that
left her severely malnourished have
avoided serving a jail sentence.
The 35-year-old man and 33-year-old
woman from Sydney, who cannot be
named for legal reasons, were given an
18-month jail term yesterday which
will be served as a community order.
Their daughter, now three, looked
like a 12-week-old infant at 19 months
owing to her “inadequate” diet, the
court was told.
She was fed a diet of oats, rice milk,
potatoes, vegetables, rice and tofu and
was occasionally given a mouthful of
fruit or sultanas as a snack.
The toddler was found with no teeth
when she was taken into care last year.
Sentencing the couple at Sydney’s
Downing Centre Court, Judge Sarah
Huggett called the child’s diet “com-
pletely inadequate”.
She added: “This child was severely
malnourished, underweight and un-
dersized and delayed as far as age-ap-
propriate milestones were concerned.It is the responsibility of every parent
to ensure the diet they choose to pro-
vide to their childrenis one that is bal-
anced and contains sufficient essential
nutrients for optimal growth.”
The girl was taken into care in March
last year when her mother called emer-
gency services after she suffered a sei-
zure.
She had blue lips, cold hands and
feet, low blood sugar and little muscle
tone. It was then that she was found to
be severely malnourished.
Hospital tests uncovered multiple
severe nutritional deficiencies and
doctors said that the girl’s bones had
not developed since birth.
As a result of her diet the girl had
rickets, thin bones and had missed key
developmental milestones.
Her foster carer said the child, who
weighed just 10lb 12oz (4.89kg) when
she was taken out of her parents’ care,
was “behind other children”.
“She couldn’t sit up, she couldn’t
speak any words, she couldn’t feed her-
self, she couldn’t play with toys ... she
couldn’t roll over all the way,” she said.
“When she meets new peoplethey ask her questions about her
age and are shocked. She stands out
as different.”
The couple first appeared in court in
May last year, where they admitted fail-
ing to provide for a child and causing
serious injury.
Yesterday they were sentenced to an
18-month correction order and 300
hours of community service.
Judge Huggett accepted that the
mother had postnatal depression,
which could have affected her deci-
sion-making, and reduced her moral
culpability when sentencing the cou-
ple.
She said that the pair were “initially
unable to accept that their daughter’s
condition was due to malnutrition”.
The mother had become “increas-
ingly fixated” on her beliefs, including
her veganism.
The hearing was told the couple had
two other children that they had raised
on a vegan diet without injury.
The girl and her two siblings are be-
ing cared for by a paternal aunt and
both parents have supervised access to
the children.NZ’s speaker happy to be left holding baby
By Our Foreign StaffAS New Zealand lawmakers vigorously
debated fuel prices in parliament this
week, the speaker of the house, Trevor
Mallard, called for order – then fed a
baby its bottle.
Tūtānekai, the six-week-old son of
Labour MP Tāmati Coffey and his hus-
band, born via a surrogate mother last
month, was being cuddled by his father
in the debating chamber on Wednes-
day when the speaker offered to hold
him. “There are times when I can bevaguely useful,” Mr Mallard told Reu-
ters, adding that he tried to help care
for politicians’ babies when possible.
The newborn joins other babies in
the legislature after Mr Mallard relaxed
rules in 2017 to make the parliament
more child-friendly.
About a dozen MPs have had infants
in a parliamentary baby boom.
Last year, Jacinda Ardern became
New Zealand’s first prime minister to
take maternity leave and the world’s
second elected leader to give birth in
office.Trevor Mallard feeds an MP’s six-week-old
infant during a session of ParliamentREUTERSGiraffes’ big step
towards survival
under new laws
By Helena Horton
GIRAFFES have been given protection
against unregulated trade for the first
time as their numbers decline.
The animals, which are hunted for
their hides, bones and meat, have been
added to a list of endangered species at
a summit in international trade.
Conservationists said yesterday’s
ruling, which was opposed by south-
ern African countries, “throws a vital
lifeline to this majestic species”.
It is thought giraffe numbers have
decreased by about 40 per cent in the
past 30 years and only 68,000 mature
individuals remain in the wild.
Nine species of the animals are now
listed on Appendix II of the Convention
on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) making it much more
difficult to trade in their body parts.
A total of 106 parties to the UN-
backed treaty voted in favour of the
motion put before delegates in Geneva
with 21 voting against and seven ab-
staining.
Adam Peyman, of Humane Society
International, said: “Securing protec-
tion for the giraffe throws a vital life-
line to this majestic species, which has
been going quietly extinct for years.
“This listing could not come soon
enough. CITES listing will ensure that
giraffe parts in international trade were
legally acquired and not detrimental to
the survival of the species.”
Giraffes were facing “silent extinc-
tion”, a spokesman for the Natural Re-
sources Defense Council, a US
conservation group, said. “Thanks to
today’s decision, the international trade
in giraffe parts – which includes rugs
and bone carvings – will be tracked in a
manner that allows us to focus on prob-
lem trends in destructive trade, and
fight for additional protections.”
Zac Goldsmith, a Defra minister,
welcomed the ruling, tweeting: “Well
done to the Defra team for making the
case so forcefully.” A cross-party coali-
tion of MPs wrote to Michael Gove
when he was environment secretary,
urging him to protect giraffes amid
“alarming reports” of a rise in hunting
trophies.
The eight southern African nations
that opposed the motion argued that
giraffe numbers were increasing in
their countries because trophy hunt-
ing and selling parts provided incen-
tives and funds for conservation.
Celebrities such as Joanna Lumley,
Judi Dench and Ricky Gervais put pres-
sure on the European Union yesterday
to vote for a ban on the trade of baby
elephants, which are allowed to be cap-
tured in the wild.Wanted dead or alive:
bear on run in Italy
A bear that is attacking livestock,
raiding beehives and startling hikers
in the Dolomite mountains of Italy is
wanted dead or alive.
The brown bear, known to scientists
as M49 but nicknamed Papillon after a
French memoir about a prison escape,
climbed a 16ft-high fence and fled an
enclosure in a wildlife sanctuary in the
province of Trentino last month. It has
moved northwards, disembowelling a
cow and encountering hikers.
The province of South Tyrol has
issued an order which calls for the
capture or, if necessary, the killing of
the 140kg, three-year-old bear.WORLD BULLETIN
Lightning kills hikers in
Polish mountain storm
A lightning strike in Poland’s southern
Tatra mountain range has caused
some deaths among a group of
tourists, rescuers said yesterday.
The TOPR rescue service said it was
called to the Giewont mountain where
a group, including children, were
electrocuted after a bolt of lightning
struck a large metal cross at the peak.
It said about 20 people could have
been hit by strikes at the summit and
other locations in Tatra. No definite
figure for fatalities was available.
According to the TVN television
channel, the bolt struck the cross
while many hikers were at the summit.Pompeo tries to rebuild
relations with Denmark
Mike Pompeo offered an olive branch
to Denmark yesterday after Donald
Trump cancelled a state visit because
the Nordic country rebuffed his idea of
buying Greenland.
In a phone call with the foreign
minister, the US secretary of state
“expressed appreciation for Denmark’s
cooperation as one of the United
States’ allies and Denmark’s
contributions to address shared global
security priorities”, said a state
department spokesman.
On Wednesday, Mr Trump declared
the dismissal of his idea to buy
Greenland as “nasty” and an “affront”.Bird of play This fun-loving fox tugs on the tail feathers of a golden eagle after the pair
formed an unlikely friendship. The exchange, seen in mountains near the Spanish city of
Avila, was captured by Guillermo Arteaga who said their interaction left him “incredulous”.GUILLERMO ARTEAGA / SWNS.COMAbsinthe wins protected status
By Henry Samuel in Paris
FRENCH producers of absinthe, the
green spirit said to have inspired
Vincent van Gogh, have won a 15-year
battle to have their fiery drink receive
European protected status.
This week, Brussels granted
absinthe of Pontarlier, on the Swiss
border in eastern France, the official
protected geographical indication
mark, PGI.
The powers of the drink, dubbed
The Green Fairy, were notorious in late
19th-century Paris among bohemian
artists including Degas, Toulouse-Lau-
trec and Picasso. Van Gogh is said to
have painted The Starry Night under its
influence, and it has been suggested
the drink eventually drove him mad.The Daily Telegraph Friday 23 August 2019 *** 17
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