Dear Seattle: Will you please open a store where I can buy a slow loris holding a tiny umbrella? Thanks so much! Love, Kelly O
Kelly O—formerly a Stranger staff photographer, music writer, Drunk of the Week columnist, and more!—finished art school and a soul-crushing internship at a corporate advertising agency in Detroit,... More by Kelly O
It’s adorable. I love slow loris so much (spent hours and hours at the zoo’s nighthouse exhibit growing up). But the wild animal pet trade makes having one as a pet a really dodgy decision.
Am revising my wish for a hedgehog to “slow loris with cocktail umbrella.” That is the best thing I have ever seen, especially when he closes his little loris eyes.
Ugh. They’re super cute but this video sickens me because slow lorises are a threatened species—but now they are the pet du jour so no one gives a fuck. FYI, illegal pet smugglers take these sweeties from their mothers as babies. I think they’re painfully cute, too, but I hate that you post videos like this. It only encourages the kind of douche bags who wear fur coats and think wild animals like living as “pets.”
I miss the zoo’s Nocturnal House!! I miss the slow loris!! Can’t we start a fund to bring it back, better than before?
A video of a cute animal doing something cute?
Well! Time to fire up my righteous indignation based on speculation! HERE GOES!
Not only do they take them from their mothers, @3, but they break out their teeth to keep them from biting, and transport them stuffed into little boxes the size of a Chinese restaurant carry-out. DON’T EVEN THINK ABOUT BUYING A SLOW LORIS. THEY ARE NOT PETS. Get a cat or a dog, and visit the zoo — oh, wait, you can’t, the zoo got rid of their loris. Pissholes.
@6, it’s not speculation, boconnolly. There’s no such thing as a humane trade in slow lorises. ALL OF THEM have been horribly abused. The very fact of owning a loris proves constitutes abuse. People who own them should spend the rest of their lives in prison — a Malaysian prison, if possible.
@6 Hey, I love a cute animal as much as the next person. And I get it: Ignorance is bliss, and loads of people would rather “just not know.” But it takes about 3 seconds to find out the facts about slow lorises and the exotic animal trade on the web. I’m just putting it on here for those who don’t feel like fact-checking what they think they know before posting something jaded and ignorant.
And Kelly should know: Every time she posts one of these videos of illegally captured animals doing something cute, she’s contributing to the problem.
agreed – it’s irresponsible to post these videos. they do exacerbate the exotic animal trafficking problem. anything that encourages people to obtain these (or other) wild creatures should be halted immediately.
cuteoverload.com is guilty of it thousands of times over. i see the temptation to post these videos – it’s cute, yes, but pull it, kelly. (i hate doing this – i’ve never asked for any slog post to be pulled before).
Oh, god. I just started the actual video. Grr.
I swear to god, if I ever developed superpowers, I would devote my life to flying to wherever people involved in the exotic pet trade are and murder them so badly and so publicly — I’m thinking slitting them open like a fish and making them eat their own intestines and leaving them lying in the road — that even the most hardened Zeta cartel boss or Russian oligarch would blanch and feel faint if someone so much as said the words “slow loris” to him. Zzzz. I’m sizzling here. Sons of bitches.
Fnarf (I’m guessing) you’d really make my day if you told me what you think of people who wear real fur!
Eeegads. I thought “a store that sells them holding tiny umbrellas” was ridiculous enough that you guys would realize I’m not serious about actually trying to buy one
exotic pet trade = bad
drinking too much coffee and taking this post way too seriously also = bad
Kelly,
Yes, it’s a cute video in isolation, by itself. Yes, you had good intentions in posting this video. However, posting it is seriously bad. It’s not possible to separate this video from the context in which it was made, namely what appears to be an exotic pet dealer who’s trading in illegal animals.
I first saw this video on another website, and my first instinct was “oh, how adorable!” Once I learned a bit more, however, I wanted to vomit. Please check out this article on Wikipedia, “Conservation of Slow Lorises”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservatio…
Among other facts:
– Slow lorises are illegally poached for the pet trade, not born in captivity.
– Slow lorises typically have their canine teeth ripped out by pet dealers.
– Many or most slow lorises that are captured die from infection as a result of having their teeth ripped out, and those who survive typically die in captivity from other causes.
– In addition to the illegal pet trade, slow lorises are also killed for traditional medicine, even making into wine. (Blergh)
– All five species of slow lorises are either threatened or endangered.
This is a “cute” video of an animal that will likely suffer the same fate. Videos like this just encourage people to think of them as pets and encourage the illegal pet trade. Could you update the post with some sort of disclaimer/context?
kelly, i know that i often take shit way too seriously but really, it does matter.
of course we know you’re not serious about buying one. that isn’t the point.
Kelly O: I can’t do shit about global warming, global overpopulation, the rising cost of gas, deforestation, etc. I CAN bitch that people contribute to the problem of the exotic pet trade. People are bound to get passionate about a cause they think can win. I don’t really know why being passionate about ending cruelty to animals is taking something “too seriously”, but imho you should learn this lesson with a shred of humility and not post any more videos.
Plus, I understand the loris can be persipacious enough to mock the trangendered.
Fnarf, the Woodland Park Zoo did not get rid of their slow loris. He’s just not on display any more.
@19 but the nocturnal exhibit is gone, right? I loved the leathery wings of the bats with the hooked claws at the end, and all the other wonderful night life, including the slow loris. I’m glad the little fellow is still there, but wish the exhibit would come back. It was a magical place for me.
And people would own exotic endangered pets are assholes – like buying blood diamonds.
@19, SO THEY SAY. Are we POSITIVE they haven’t made it into a coat? Have you seen it?
@12, I’m probably going to disappoint you, but I think they’re tacky as hell but not any more objectionable than, say, leather shoes. It’s harming animals, especially endangered animals, just for sport, for fun, that gets my gander (and my goose). Fur coats indicate bad taste, not evil.
@21: yup. If you wear leather, don’t go hatin on fur.
In truth, we hominids are top predators. It is our genetic destiny to brutally kill the cute and furry, eat their flesh, and dress in their skins. If you choose not to, be glad society has specialized enough for you not to have to. But for Bog’s sake stop pretending we were ever meant to be peaceful herbivores.
That video made me feel like crying.
@21 @22 I’ll just add one thing about leather vs. fur: Leather is often a biproduct of the meat industry: Animals are raised exclusively for fur in godawful environments, and then their carcasses go god knows where. (To boot, have you seen the animals raised for fur? They’re freaking sweet and cute as hell!!)
I do think fur (and exotic skins, such as lizard, snake) is FAR more cruel than leather. (Disclaimer: I rarely eat meat or wear leather, and when I do the choice is not willy-nilly.)
Reading many of the above comments totally negated any happiness I got out of watching this video. Thanks. Maybe next time just enjoy the video and STFU until your next PETA meeting.
Kelly O: The one last thing I’ll say about this: I take it as seriously as I would if you posted a video of “stupid women drivers” or “hooter’s girls” or anything else that I felt contributes toward misogyny and hatred of women. As a woman, that is something I feel seriously about, and I call people on it when I see it. And as an animal lover, it tears me up to know that people misunderstand the exotic animal trade, and continue to post “cute” videos that are actually showing something bad but they’d “rather not know” the truth. So I call people on it.
I know my example is extreme (women’s rights vs. animal rights) but both causes are dear to my heart, so there you have it.
I can’t watch Milo & Otis because of my blood-curdling fear that all of the animals in that movie were mistreated.
It’s a real shame, too, because that movie is fucking hilarious. British dude doing animals voices and all that.
For a final word on this video, in case anyone sees it: This animal has a head injury from being in the cage, and probably has other injuries from having his teeth removed. Not cute at all.
http://www.boingboing.net/2011/03/23/ado…