@ccaracal-blog1 You can call me Ross! This is a big cat blog, where you'll see photographs and informational posts.
[he/him pronouns]
Okay, head’s up. This little critter is called a slow loris. NEVER TAKE ONE AS A PET. They’ve experienced a boom in popularity as pets in parts of Asia and then the rest of the world, and this is not okay.Why?
A) They’re endangered
B) They’re venomous. The only known venomous primate, to be exact. They store it in their inner arms.They’ll get in defensive posture, suck the venom from their glands, and them bite. And the bite can kill a human. (Seriously, one nipped Lady Gaga in Feb 2014 when she thought it would be a good idea to use one in a music video. They dropped that idea, thankfully.)
C) They’re endangered directly BECAUSE OF THE EXOTIC PET TRADE
D) When the poachers trap them, THEY CLIP THEIR FUCKING TEETH TO MAKE THEM “MANAGEABLE.” Many slow loris’ will die before ever being sold because of complications with HAVING THEIR FUCKING TEETH CLIPPED. (There’s a reason the loris’ in the videos are only eating soft foods…)
E) The exotic pet trade on slow loris’ BOOMed because of youtube videos like the one above.
You wanna help these adorable looking critters?
International Animal Rescue: ‘Adopt’ a Slow Loris
And please make it very clear to everyone who thinks these videos are cute, that the animal in question has been stolen from it’s natural habitat and horrifically abused just so it could be a “cute” pet.
Shockingly, there are about 5,000 captive tigers in the U.S.—many more than in the wild. Almost all of the captive tigers are owned privately as pets—not by zoos or accredited institutions.
Why does this matter? For two main reasons:
These tigers could become victims of wildlife crime. Without strict regulations on the private ownership of tigers, we cannot prevent them, or their bones and skins, from finding a way into the lucrative illegal international black market.
It’s a matter of public safety. It’s entirely possible that your neighbor has a tiger on his property and has never reported it to local officials or informed you. In some places, it’s easier to buy a tiger as a pet than to adopt a dog from a shelter.
We need your help to remind President Obama that our government’s inaction to close loopholes on captive tigers leaves wild tigers—and people—vulnerable.