Rihanna’s vacation selfies helped Thai investigators capture two men charging tourists to take photos with an animal on the protected species list.
The series of Instagram snapshots taken in Phuket over the weekend show RiRi posing with a slow loris, an adorable wide-eyed primate that is a protected animal.
The tiny creature nuzzled the singer’s shoulder in a pic that got more than 220,000 likes on Instagram.
“Look who was talkin dirty to me!” She tweeted in a link to the picture to her 31.7 million Twitter followers.
“Phuket authorities were alerted to the picture and last night police arrested the two individuals who brought out the loris as a photo opportunity for tourists,” a Phuket police commander told the Associated Press.
Cops nabbed two lorises from a 20-year-old man and a 16-year-old boy who were reportedly charging tourists incliding Rihanna for pictures with the squirrel-like cuties. Both animal wranglers were charged with possession of a protected species and could get up to four years in prison and have to pay a 40,000 baht ($1,300) fine.
The globetrotting pop diva was on a break from her Diamonds world tour, and had plenty of pictures taken with local wildlife.
Fans and animal activists were torn over whether to hail her for helping catch the wrong-doers or blast her for fueling the business.
“They kill their mothers so you can take a picture with it,” wrote anitaolea. “People open ur eyes and don’t support this!”
“This pic exposed them,” countered another Instagrammer, oluwatimilehin.