Wednesday, May 11, 2011

The Slow Loris is an Illegal Pet

The slow loris is a primate that has gained attention through a few YouTube videos.  As so often happens when "cute animal" videos come out, somebody insists they want to obtain that animal as a pet.  The slow loris, however, should not be kept as a pet. 

Slow loris are native to southeast Asia where it is illegal to capture them from the wild; owning them, and selling them, is also illegal.   Many slow loris are poached from the wild for the purpose of resale in bird and pet markets, or are shipped to other countries for sale in pet stores.  In these stores they are often listed as being "captive bred" however this is usually not the case, but nearly impossible to prove.  Even if they were captive bred, the parent animals were stolen illegally from the wild.

File:Myanmar Illicit Endangered Wildlife Market 06.jpg

photo source

The real cruelty is the fact that slow loris are put at risk by having their teeth pulled, or cut, before they become part of the exotic pet trade.  If rescued from markets they cannot be returned to the wild because without teeth survival is difficult.

The slow loris has a poisonous bite.  To deal with this the poachers will cut their teeth with pliers or nail clippers, or yank them out.  Veterinarians are not involved because aiding the poachers would be illegal.  The poor little animals are given no pain killers, and nothing to fight infection.  Many slow loris stop eating as a result of the pain, or die from infection.  There is no way of knowing just how many slow loris die, but estimates suggest that many get infections which are often fatal and others die of stress or malnutrition.

photo source

Make no mistake, the slow loris, although cute, should not be part of the exotic pet trade. If you happen to see a slow loris for sale in an illegal pet market, DO NOT buy it, this only rewards the seller.  Rather you are suggested to call police or other animal welfare authorities, who will take the animal and place it in a rescue.  This hurts the seller and hopefully they will stop their involvement in the cruel trade of this beautiful animal.

Please read more about the Slow Loris .

12 comments:

  1. no wonder if many people want to pet a slow loris. we have to admit that they are so cute, especially with those big round eyes. but yes, i heard that their bite is poisonous. and if i'm not mistaken this is caused by their habit in consuming some poisonous leaves.
    thanks for sharing this info. if the government say this is an illegal animal to keep, then there must be serious issue about the survival of this animal.

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  2. If I could keep this animal as a pet, believe me, I will hold it all day long lol. But no doubt, I don't want it to bite me.

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  3. They are really hard to breed because of the low productivity rate and they are really prone to stress. There is currently no breeders what so ever, it is hard to breed them (keeping them alive needs care too and the low productivity adds to the difficulty) so there is no way they cost only as much as they are now in places where they said they are captively bred.

    And they are vulnerable, in grave danger... I am from a country where this animal come from, and I know how severe their poaching is right now. Thank you for putting this site up :)

    By the way, no, their poison come from the glands by their armpit area. They licked it, activating the poison by their saliva.

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  4. I can't believe this happens.If this animal is rare or almost to their extinct, we should keep them freely. If it is very hard to breed and we as peopl couldn't help them on this case, let them breed them selves, naturally. it turns out to keep their existence in this earth. Nice post anyway. Thanks.

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  5. This animal is truly cute, especially with their round eyes. However, as they are born wild it means they should love free, wild, out of human's reach if it is possible. I hope this post could be used as a warning for everyone.

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  6. These are so cool. Saw one once. Thanks for sharing.

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  7. thank you very much for this information, I really love this animal.
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  8. its a nice info..,
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  9. Poor little guy.

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  10. cutting their teeth is as bad as declawing a cat or cutting off our hands..
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