PETA to Dump Coconuts at Thai Embassy in Protest Against Forced Monkey Labor
New PETA Asia Investigation Released Today Shows Chained Primates Forced to Work Under Threat of Punishment in Thailand
For Immediate Release:
November 14, 2022
Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382
PETA Asia’s third investigation into the Thai coconut milk industry reveals that threatened and endangered monkeys continue to be tied up, beaten, whipped, and forced to pick coconuts under the threat of physical violence despite government officials’ claims that forced monkey labor has ended. On Wednesday, PETA supporters dressed as monkeys will dump hundreds of humanely picked coconuts in front of the Thai embassy and demand that the Thai government act to stop this exploitation and abuse.
When: Wednesday, November 16, 9 a.m.
Where: Royal Thai Embassy, 2300 Kalorama Rd. N.W., Washington (at the intersection with 23rd Street N.W.)
Workers confirmed to PETA Asia’s investigators that monkeys are abducted as babies from their families and forest homes and tethered by the neck, and their teeth may be pulled out if they try to defend themselves. They’re deprived of any semblance of a natural life. PETA Asia’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.
“The Thai coconut trade uses social monkeys as coconut-picking machines, depriving them of any real life or chance of freedom or a social life,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on everyone all over the world to shun canned coconut milk from Thailand until every monkey is free.”
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 PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
