New PETA Ad Targets Publix Over Coconut Milk Produced With Forced Monkey Labor

For Immediate Release:
November 10, 2020

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

As part of its campaign to compel Publix to reconsider its relationship with Thai brand Chaokoh—which a PETA Asia investigation revealed uses monkeys who are chained for life to pick coconuts—PETA is posting a billboard near a local Publix store urging shoppers to leave the products of cruel monkey labor on the shelf. PETA’s campaign to persuade the grocery chain to do the right thing also includes sending deliveries of humanely picked coconuts to the company’s CEO.

“Every can of Chaokoh coconut milk on Publix’s shelves harms the company’s reputation,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on Publix to reject its role in these monkeys’ misery and reconsider its relationship with the brand.”

PETA Asia’s investigation revealed that monkeys are chained, isolated from their peers, transported in cages, and forced to climb trees in order to collect coconuts day in and day out. The captive animals display stereotypic types of behavior, such as circling endlessly, that are indicative of severe mental anguish.

Costco recently told PETA that it would join the more than 25,000 stores around the world—including chains Walgreens, Giant, and Food Lion—that have pledged not to sell coconut products obtained through monkey labor. Publix is one of the last remaining holdouts still selling cruelly produced coconut products.

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.

The billboard is located at 5121 Florida Ave. S., at the intersection with S. Lakeland Drive, less than 1 mile from a Publix store.