Nearly Nude Model Poses in Chains on Bangkok Billboard for New PETA Campaign Targeting Coconut Trade’s Abuse of Monkeys

Model, influencer and Bangkok native Richie Kul appears in a new sky-high PETA appeal in Bangkok to call for an end to the abuse of monkeys in Thailand’s coconut industry. The striking visual plea, which just went up at Ekkamai Tai Junction and will run until 10 March, shows Kul posing nearly nude, wrapped in chains, and surrounded by coconuts.

Credit: PETA.
High-resolution versions of the ad in different sizes are available here.

In an accompanying video spot, Kul speaks out against the use of animals in the coconut milk industry, calling for an end to the practice. “I hope in the very, very near future, we see an abolition of the use of animals full stop in the production of the coconut milk industry,” he says, describing the practice as “antiquated and unnecessary.” He encourages consumers to support “cruelty-free brands that do not use animals in their production.”

PETA’s extensive investigations in Thailand over the last six years have implicated coconut pickers, brokers, farms, and monkey-training operations in nine provinces. PETA’s latest investigation documented the conditions inside the cruel monkey training facilities, where endangered baby pig-tailed macaque monkeys, who are less than 3 months old and have been torn from their mothers, are tethered for years on chains so short they can barely move. They are kept in flooded or trash-strewn areas and driven insane by endless confinement—all so that they can be forcibly trained to pick coconuts in the Thai coconut industry.

The ad shot by photographer Nin Narint, with hair by Rapeepong Poothavornsub and makeup by Woranan Yaowarat and set design by Lower Back Pain. The billboard is located at Ekkamai Tai Junction, in front of Bangkok Bus Terminal Ekkamai (see Google Maps link here.)

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—points out that Every Animal Is Someone. For more information, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.

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