WFFT Petition Against the Use of Gibbons as Photo-Props in the Tourist Trade, Southeast Asia

Having a picture taken of yourself with a gibbon on your shoulder might sound like a novel thing to do whilst on holiday, but the use of animals for entertainment is inhumane and unacceptable from an ethical point of view, but also extremely damaging from a conservation perspective.

Most of the wild animals exploited for tourists are poached from ever-decreasing wild populations, if this continues then there will be none left.

Almost all are poached from the wild; a complete family of gibbons will be killed just to obtain one baby gibbon.

The animals suffer greatly - they are often drugged, mistreated and passed from one stranger to stranger all day and until late into the night.

Most animals can only be used when they are young and therefore are dumped by their owners when they mature and become aggressive - natural behaviour for an wild animal - or too large to handle.

Some people, as well as some gibbons, carry diseases that can be transferred from animals to people and vice versa. You can actually get deadly diseases from these animals such as TBC and Hepatitis-B if you kiss and hug them or don't handle them professionally.