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Following latest confiscation, IAR calls for urgent end to trafficking in protected slow lorises.

10th April 2017

Fourteen Critically Endangered Javan slow lorises have been confiscated by the Agency for Conservation of Natural Resources (BBKSDA), the police of Tasikmalaya, West Java and the Ministry of Law Enforcement of the Environment and Forestry.  The confiscation of six female lorises, seven males and one infant of unknown gender took place on 9 April, from a trader in Manonjaya, West Java. Two kestrels and the feet of an eagle were also seized. The case and the individual involved are currently under investigation by the police.

The lorises were found in cramped, dirty cages and were undoubtedly destined for onward sale to a potential buyer. They were evacuated by the police and received emergency treatment from IAR’s medical team in Indonesia who were on standby to support the confiscation efforts of the authorities.

According to IAR’s veterinarian Nur Purba Priambada, the rescued lorises were suffering from dehydration and diarrhoea. Fortunately their teeth hadn’t yet been clipped or damaged. This is a barbaric practice often inflicted on lorises captured for the pet trade to prevent injury to potential buyers or dealers. “A few were also injured, probably from being cramped with too many others in narrow cages which caused fights between them,” said Priambada.

The slow lorises will undergo further examination and go through the quarantine process at IAR’s rescue and rehabilitation centre for macaques and slow lorises near Bogor, West Java. ‘’Once the legal process is completed and their health is restored, they will be released back into the wild,’’ IAR’s veterinarian added.

Karmele Llano Sanchez, Programme Director of IAR Indonesia, said: “Illegal hunting and trafficking for the pet trade are pushing the slow loris perilously close to extinction. As a result the Javan slow loris is now classified as “Critically Endangered” by the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature.) Hundreds of these protected primates are sold each year in seven big markets in four major cities across Indonesia. An average of three slow lorises are taken from the wild each day to supply the illegal pet trade and of these, one is likely to die before it is even sold.

“If the species is to survive, it is vital that the trade is stamped out. It causes immeasurable suffering to individual lorises and poses a grave threat to the survival of the entire species. The latest confiscation must send out a strong and urgent message to traffickers and to potential buyers that slow lorises must not be captured, sold and kept as pets, and the consequences for continuing to trade in them will be severe.”