Slow lorises are illegally traded as exotic pets, suffering extreme welfare harms from tooth removal, capture stress, and inappropriate captive conditions that make them unsuitable as companion animals.
Slow loris welfare is catastrophically impacted by the exotic pet trade. The tooth-clipping that makes them appear "safe" is performed without anaesthesia, causes severe pain, and leads to chronic infection and jaw abscesses that cause ongoing suffering throughout the animal's life. Capture from the wild, transport in cramped conditions, and sale into inappropriate private homes involves multiple layers of acute and chronic welfare harm. Slow lorises are solitary, nocturnal animals that require complex arboreal environments, insect prey, and absence of human disturbance — the antithesis of a pet environment. Social media videos showing "cute" lorises being tickled are documents of animal abuse — lorises raise their arms not in pleasure but in a defensive toxin-presentation posture.