Lady Gaga Bitten By Slow Loris (World's Only Venomous Primate) In Video Shoot Attempt
And you know what? It fucking serves her right.
Last week, the musical artist, Lady Gaga, was "nipped" by the world's only venomous primate, a slow loris, in a misguided attempt to use the animal in a new music video. After it bit the musician, the idea of using the primate in the video was dropped. This was just as well, according to loris expert Anna Nekaris, who says that slow lorises have become increasingly endangered worldwide by the illegal pet trade after people have seen them on YouTube videos.
"Slow lorises are one of the most sought after illegal exotic pets. As it is extremely difficult to breed them in captivity, these fragile animals are culled from the wild in unsustainable numbers and are kept as pets within Asia as well as shipped illegally around the world," Nekaris, founder of the Little Fireface Project which works to study and conserve slow lorises, told mongabay.com.
In order to obtain a slow loris for the illegal wildlife trade, poachers steal them from the wild. Slow loris in captivity are usually unable to clean themselves properly and are thus covered in urine and feces. The poachers usually pull out the sharp loris teeth using pliers to make them more palpable to pet owners. Such harsh tactics, combined with unsuitable diets, mean many slow lorises die even before they are sold.
Nekaris is not sure how the animal trainer in question got hold of this particular slow loris, but it's possible, perhaps even likely, that the animal was obtained in just such a way. Slow lorises are notoriously difficult to breed in captivity, so that the overwhelming majority held as pets are taken from the wild. "I am aware of some professional animal handlers either obtaining a slow loris illegally through smuggling or buying a Slow loris from a reputed professional breeder. But again, these animals are so difficult to breed in the wild, the likelihood that was wildborn seems more likely," she said. Currently, all eight species of slow loris are considered threatened with extinction.
EDIT
http://news.mongabay.com/2014/0225-hance-lady-gaga-vs-slow-loris.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
... but I certainly hope that the people involved with providing it catch some punishment ...
Response to hatrack (Original post)
