From the Oxford Brookes University News Archive
08/09/2015
The fourth annual Slow Loris Outreach Week (SLOW), which aims to raise awareness around the plight of the Asian lorises, will be launched by the Little Fireface Project on Monday 14 September.
The project will encourage people from all over the world to change their Facebook banners and profile pictures to the SLOW campaign images and share slow loris conservation messages.
During the Slow Loris Outreach Week, we want people to be made aware of the truth about these seemingly docile creatures and the illegal trade surrounding them Professor Anna Nekaris
During the Slow Loris Outreach Week, we want people to be made aware of the truth about these seemingly docile creatures and the illegal trade surrounding them
The cute and docile appearance of the slow loris began to capture the hearts of millions across the world when a YouTube video of a ‘pet’ loris being tickled went viral.
Since then, more and more videos have appeared online that disguise the true nature of the loris and lead people to believe they make ideal pets.
Professor Anna Nekaris, Professor in Anthropology and Primate Conservation at Oxford Brookes and Director of the Little Fireface Project, said: “It is not obvious from social media videos that these primates are in fact a protected species and it is in all likelihood that the lorises featured in the videos have been caught in the wild and traded illegally.
“When lorises are captured from the wild they are then subjected to cruel treatment and harm both in the markets and the homes to which they are eventually sold.
“During the Slow Loris Outreach Week, we want people to be made aware of the truth about these seemingly docile creatures and the illegal trade surrounding them and to challenge the legality and welfare content of any pet slow loris videos being circulated on the internet by spreading messages of conservation.”
Anyone interested in protecting the slow loris can donate via the Oxford Brookes fundraising pages.
Support will provide a range of activities to keep the slow loris in the wild where they belong. These activities include:
Anna will also be speaking about the plight of the slow loris at the launch of the new Lush store on Oxford Street, London on Thursday 17 September.
An article from Anna on SLOW and further information on what will be happening during the week is available to read on the Oxford Mail website.
More information about the slow loris and Oxford Brookes’ conservation work can be found on the Oxford Brookes website and the Little Fireface Project website.
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