PHOTO: Chained PETA ‘Monkeys’ Hand Out Coconuts at Thai Embassy to Blast Forced Labor

A troop of PETA “monkeys” dressed in prison uniforms descended on the Royal Thai Embassy with wheelbarrows full of humanely picked coconuts and handed them out to passersby in an effort to push the Thai government to end the forced labor of endangered pig-tailed macaques in its coconut industry—which PETA investigations reveal has continued despite government officials’ claims that the cruel practice has ended.

“Sensitive, endangered monkeys are snatched from their families and deprived of everything that’s natural and important to them, condemned to a miserable life in chains, and forced to pick coconuts around the clock,” says PETA Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA is calling on the Thai government to end this systemic abuse and, until it does, is urging everyone to shun Thai coconut products.”

Many monkeys used in Thailand’s coconut-picking industry are illegally abducted from their natural habitat as babies, fitted with rigid metal collars, chained, and forced to climb trees to pick heavy coconuts. Their canine teeth are sometimes pulled out in order to leave them defenseless. PETA’s investigators found that when the monkeys aren’t being forced to pick coconuts or perform in cruel, circus-style shows for tourists, they’re kept chained to old tires and boxes.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview.

For more information, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

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