For Immediate Release:
December 9, 2020
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
Lakeland, Fla. – Tomorrow, PETA supporters will leave wheelbarrow loads of coconuts at Publix’s downtown corporate office to remind the company that it’s nuts to do business with Thailand’s Chaokoh brand, which a PETA Asia investigation has revealed forces monkeys—who are kept caged and chained for life—to pick coconuts used in coconut milk products. PETA has also sent coconuts to the homes of Publix executives, and the group previously dumped the fruit at the doors of Kroger’s headquarters.
When: Thursday, December 10, 12 noon
Where: Publix’s downtown corporate office, 321 S. Kentucky Ave., Lakeland
PETA Asia’s investigators found cruelty to monkeys on every farm, at every monkey-training facility, and in every coconut-picking contest that used monkey labor. When not being forced to pick coconuts or perform in circus-style shows for tourists, the animals were kept tethered, chained to old tires, or confined to cages barely larger than their bodies, deprived of any semblance of a life. Many monkeys displayed repetitive behavior indicative of extreme mental anguish, including one who chewed on his own limbs. One coconut farmer confirmed that when monkeys are terrified and try to defend themselves, handlers pull their teeth out.
“Milk from coconuts picked by abused monkeys doesn’t belong on grocery shelves any more than monkeys belong on those chains,” says PETA President Ingrid Newkirk. “PETA is calling on Publix to reject products of forced monkey labor.”
More than 26,000 other stores—including chains Wegmans, Costco, Walgreens, Food Lion, and Stop & Shop—have banned coconut milk brands that use coconuts picked by monkeys.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way”—opposes speciesism, which is a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
