Endangered Baby Monkeys Chained, Abused for Thai Coconut Industry
Endangered Baby Monkeys Chained, Abused for Thai Coconut Industry
Bangkok — Shocking, from a PETA investigation takes viewers inside the schools 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, 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 disturbing video—narrated by veterinarian Dr. Heather Rally, who took part in the investigation—reveals the physical, social, and psychological torment these monkeys endure. Photos from the investigation are available here, and video footage is available here. Broadcast-quality footage is available upon request.
Dr. Rally and PETA investigators documented that baby monkeys—who were abducted from their families in nature or bred on site and taken from their mothers—were tethered on ropes and chains with no shelter from extreme weather and denied comfort, enrichment, or adequate socialization. Many of them were tied to tiny cages on which their skin was chafed raw from the metal bars. Monkeys paced neurotically and some ran frantically while attached to tethers, repeatedly choking themselves on their collars.
PETA notes that the schools—which are promoted to tourists on the Thai government website—put on deceptive coconut-picking “demonstrations” for visitors that involve adult monkeys who have been abused and broken. The group is calling on the Thai government to shut down these schools.
“Every single monkey I saw was suffering in some way, both physically and psychologically,” says Dr. Rally, medical director at a veterinary hospital in Los Angeles, USA. “As a veterinarian, I am disturbed and horrified by these conditions. But as a mother, my heart is shattered. These babies should be cradled by their mothers, but they’re prisoners.”
Baby monkeys cling to each other at a Thai coconut-picking school in this image from PETA’s investigative footage.
“Thailand’s coconut-picking training schools are cesspools of misery, where baby monkeys are snatched from their mothers, deprived of everything that’s natural and important to them, and chained until they lose their minds,” says PETA Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA is urging Chaokoh, Aroy-D and the Thai government to shut down these abusive training schools.”
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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