Slow Loris Pet Trade

About the Slow Loris:

Slow Lorises are one of three species of lorises, including the slender loris and the pygmy slow loris. They are nocturnal mammals that live in Southern Asia, including China, India, Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, and other regions around that area. They are small furry creatures that live high in the trees of tropical forests, eating insects, fruit, plants, eggs, lizards, birds, and even sometimes small mammals. As for defense, slow lorises have a venomous bite that can be activated by licking a gland on their arm. Their saliva and the chemical mixes, generating a toxic venom, that can kill even humans. Every 12-18 months, slow lorises mate and breed, producing 1-2 offspring(s). Adult slow lorises weigh an average of 1.8-2.9 lbs, and can live up to 20 years.

Pet Trade

Slow Lorises were considered least concerned in the scale of endangerment, but after just a few years of pet trade, they rose up to critically endangered. There are a few steps to slow loris pet trade; the biggest issue that has been taking a toll on their population.

Step 1: Capture

Thousands of Slow Lorises are captured from the wild, to be illegally sold

Step 2: Teeth Cutting

To prevent slow lorises from activating their venom and injuring humans, its teeth are cut off, with nail clippers, wire cutters, or pliers, with no anaesthetic. This procedure is incredibly painful for the slow lorises, and often result in infection, death, or disease through death and blood loss.

Step 3: Transport

Lorises are transported in dark, overcrowded and poorly ventilated containers or crates, stressing them, and resulting in high death rates. Often captured lorises are found in crates alongside the bodies of other lorises that have died.

Torture Tickling

Everyone loves cute animal videos right? But what if you were told that the animal was suffering? Would you continue to watch it?

In 2009, a video was posted, of a slow loris named Sonya. The owner, was tickling her, while she raised her arms up in defense. The video immediately went viral, and everyone thought it was completely adorable, even funny. Back then, nobody knew that a slow loris raising its arms up was a sign of distress, if not fear. When threatened, slow lorises will raise its arms up, to lick a gland that will produce venom. Luckily, the truth came out after a humane society program expressed the sickly truth about tickling.

Click here for slow loris video