The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals says retailer Costco has discontinued the selling of a popular coconut milk brand over accusations of forced monkey labor.
“No kind shopper wants monkeys to be chained up and treated like coconut-picking machines,” PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said about Costco’s reported decision to pull coconut milk made by Thailand’s Theppadungporn Coconut Company. “Costco made the right call to reject animal exploitation.”
Theppadungporn, which produces coconut milk under the brand name Chaokoh, denied claims the company employs forced monkey labor to produce coconut milk earlier this year, but that hasn’t deterred retailers like Costco from cutting ties.
“Monkeys in Thailand are kept chained, abusively trained, and forced to climb trees to pick coconuts that are used to make coconut milk and other products,” a PETA investigation determined, according to its website. “Chaokoh, a coconut milk brand that’s sold in major stores across the U.S., is among those that sell coconut products made using forced monkey labor.”
“The terrified young monkeys are forced to perform stressful, confusing tasks, like twisting heavy coconuts until they fall off trees from a great height,” PETA added.
Belinda Carlisle, member of the music group the Go-Gos and a PETA supporter, says that 25,000 stores have dropped the coconut milk product in response to PETA’s investigation. She penned a letter to Kroger and other retailers, urging them to follow suit.
“Since PETA Asia released its investigation, more than 25,000 stores have dropped … Chaokoh, and customers around the world are boycotting [the brand] because of [its] connection to animal abuse,” Carlisle wrote.
Aphisak Theppadungporn, managing director of Theppadungporn Coconut Co., said in July that boycott efforts have caused a 20% to 30% drop in sales and that the company is auditing plantations to prove that forced monkey labor is not used.
“Coconut milk is not selling very well,” one coconut plantation owner told Reuters. “It’s probably from the news.”
PETA has long been a vocal advocate of boycotts and media campaigns designed to eliminate specific consumer products it deems harmful to animals. It has also been criticized for perceived double standards, including euthanizing animals at its facilities, which it calls “mercy killings.”
