Major UK Supermarket Chain Drops Thai Coconut Milk Linked to Monkey Abuse After PETA Exposés
Major UK Supermarket Chain Drops Thai Coconut Milk Linked to Monkey Abuse After PETA Exposés
Bangkok – British supermarket giant Morrisons has become the latest retailer to distance itself from forced monkey labour after learning about PETA’s multiple investigations into the abuse of monkeys in Thailand’s coconut industry. Morrisons own-brand coconut milk range will now be sourced from Merit Food Products, an award-winning Thai company verified by PETA and the maker of MeritO, and Chef’s Choice, whose brands include Nature’s Charm and which was the first Thai brand to stop sourcing coconuts from its own country. PETA UK has asked Morrisons to extend this policy to all external branded canned coconut milk products, and urges everyone to avoid buying Thai coconut milk due to rampant abuse in the industry.
Photos from the latest PETA investigation are available here, and video footage is available here.
PETA’s extensive investigations in Thailand over the last six years have implicated coconut pickers, brokers, farms, and monkey-training operations in nine provinces, including top-producing ones. PETA’s latest investigation revealed animal suffering at monkey “training schools”, which are shamefully promoted by the Thai government. Endangered baby pig-tailed macaques were tethered on ropes and chains with no shelter from extreme weather. They were denied comfort, enrichment, or adequate socialisation. Many of them were tied to tiny metal cages on which their skin was chafed raw. Monkeys paced neurotically, and some ran frantically while attached to tethers, repeatedly choking themselves on their collars.
“Morrisons has made a kind choice by rejecting coconut milk tied to monkey abuse, and we urge the Thai government to close cruel training facilities and ban the use of monkey labour,” says PETA Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “Retailers everywhere should check their supply chains and cut ties with any Thai coconut milk brands linked to this exploitation.”
PETA’s previous investigations found that the use of monkey labour is pervasive throughout the Thai coconut-farming industry. It is linked to multiple companies (including Ampawa, Ampol Food, Suree Interfoods, and Theppadungporn Coconut Co.) and brands (including Aroy-D, Chaokoh and PraoHom). No assurance or certification scheme from the Thai government or other Thai suppliers can be trusted at this time.
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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