Is Tickling Torture? Assessing Welfare towards Slow Lorises (Nycticebus spp.) within Web 2.0 Videos
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Videos, memes and images of pet slow lorises have become increasingly popular on the Internet. Although some video sites allow viewers to tag material as ‘animal cruelty', no site has yet acknowledged the presence of cruelty in slow loris videos. We examined 100 online videos to assess whether they violated the ‘five freedoms' of animal welfare and whether presence or absence of these conditions contributed to the number of thumbs up and views received by the videos. We found that all 100 videos showed at least 1 condition known as negative for lorises, indicating absence of the necessary freedom; 4% showed only 1 condition, but in nearly one third (31.3%) all 5 chosen criteria were present, including human contact (57%), daylight (87%), signs of stress/ill health (53%), unnatural environment (91%) and isolation from conspecifics (77%). The public were more likely to like videos where a slow loris was kept in the light or displayed signs of stress. Recent work on primates has shown that imagery of primates in a human context can cause viewers to perceive them as less threatened. Prevalence of a positive public opinion of such videos is a real threat towards awareness of the conservation crisis faced by slow lorises.
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| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1492 | 378 | 28 |
| Full Text Views | 44 | 7 | 3 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 70 | 16 | 8 |
Is Tickling Torture? Assessing Welfare towards Slow Lorises (Nycticebus spp.) within Web 2.0 Videos
In: Folia PrimatologicaSearch for other papers by I. Nekaris in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by K. Anne in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Louisa Musing in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Asier Gil Vazquez in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Giuseppe Donati in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Videos, memes and images of pet slow lorises have become increasingly popular on the Internet. Although some video sites allow viewers to tag material as ‘animal cruelty', no site has yet acknowledged the presence of cruelty in slow loris videos. We examined 100 online videos to assess whether they violated the ‘five freedoms' of animal welfare and whether presence or absence of these conditions contributed to the number of thumbs up and views received by the videos. We found that all 100 videos showed at least 1 condition known as negative for lorises, indicating absence of the necessary freedom; 4% showed only 1 condition, but in nearly one third (31.3%) all 5 chosen criteria were present, including human contact (57%), daylight (87%), signs of stress/ill health (53%), unnatural environment (91%) and isolation from conspecifics (77%). The public were more likely to like videos where a slow loris was kept in the light or displayed signs of stress. Recent work on primates has shown that imagery of primates in a human context can cause viewers to perceive them as less threatened. Prevalence of a positive public opinion of such videos is a real threat towards awareness of the conservation crisis faced by slow lorises.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1492 | 378 | 28 |
| Full Text Views | 44 | 7 | 3 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 70 | 16 | 8 |
