ASDA rejects Thai coconut milk following revelations of monkey abuse After learning about PETA Asia’s most recent undercover investigation exposing the usage of monkeys in Thailand’s coconut business, ASDA became the first worldwide store to commit to stop importing coconut milk from that country.
Instead, coconut milk for ASDA’s new line of house brands will come from the Philippines. Due to the widespread abuse, PETA has asked ASDA to extend this restriction to branded Thai coconut milk products in the interim. In the meanwhile, everyone is urged to refrain from purchasing these.
Great news for monkeys! @asda has become the first international retailer to agree not to source coconut milk from Thailand after learning about @PETAAsia’s new undercover investigation into the use of monkeys in the country’s coconut industry. pic.twitter.com/ZcwNWpKjW3
— PETA UK (@PETAUK) March 6, 2023
The third exposé by PETA Asia accuses farmers, traders, farms, and monkey-training facilities in nine provinces, including some of the highest-yielding. A video of a trainer beating a screaming monkey with a tether while hanging him by the neck surfaced online. When other baby monkeys wilted in crowded cages, one breeding monkey was chained outside in the heat without access to water.
Even though the species exploited by the coconut trade are threatened or endangered, coconut pickers claimed that the monkeys occasionally suffer broken bones from falling out of – or being yanked down from – the trees. A worker also confirmed that most monkeys are kidnapped from their families in nature.
Dawn Carr, director of vegan corporate projects for PETA, says ASDA has taken compassionate action to avoid coconut milk that was obtained cruelly. “We urge the Thai government to take meaningful steps towards ending the exploitative practice of forcing captive monkeys to harvest coconuts,” she adds. “PETA is urging merchants to halt sales of any products containing Thai coconut milk until monkeys are not exploited and utilized for profit.”
The most recent research by PETA Asia revealed widespread usage of monkey labor in Thailand’s coconut farming sector. It connects Theppadungporn Coconut Co., Chaokoh and Ampol Food Processing, Tropicana Oil, Thai Pure Coconut Co., Ampawa, Edward & Sons Trading Co., Suree and Aroy-D, and numerous other brands to forced monkey labor.
Animals are not ours to abuse in any way, according to one of PETA’s mottos, and the organization opposes speciesism, which promotes the supremacy of humans. Visit PETA.org.uk or follow the organization on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram for more information.
