Kopi Luwak: The Coffee That’s Cruelty in a Cup

Update (7 December 2022)
PETA Asia’s latest investigation into the cruel kopi luwak industry shows that despite an international outcry about the suffering of civet cats following our exposé, nothing has changed. The shocking new footage from a kopi luwak coffee farm in Indonesia reveals the toll that constant confinement to a cramped wire cage has taken on a sensitive Asian palm civet.

Although Asian palm civets are a protected species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, these most recent findings mirror what investigators uncovered during previous exposés of the kopi luwak industry: pervasive cruelty on every single farm.

A Disgrace, Not a Delicacy

Originally posted on 24 November, 2021:
Made from the beans of coffee berries that have been eaten and excreted by the Asian palm civet, or civet cat, “kopi luwak” or “cat-poop coffee” can be found in cafés and coffee gardens in Bali, Indonesia, and elsewhere. Tourists are often unaware of the cruel treatment of these normally solitary civet cats, and when they visit these cafés and buy kopi luwak, they may be lied to and told that the excrement of wild animals is harvested from the ground. Now, they can see what really happens to civet cats exploited for coffee.

Investigators visited civet cat farms in Bali and found unbearable conditions at every single one. They also went to the live-animal markets that sell potentially sick civet cats and saw how easily they could spread deadly diseases to other animals, including humans.

Watch the video to see for yourself how civet cats are suffering for this disgusting drink and find out what you can do to help them.

The Next Pandemic Is Brewing

To make kopi luwak, civet cats are captured from their natural habitat in Indonesia when they’re about 6 months old or bought at live-animal markets. They are confined to miserably small cages and fed an unhealthy, unnatural diet that consists primarily of coffee cherries so that the producer can harvest the coffee beans from their faeces. The coffee is exported all over the world, even though researchers believe that the SARS pandemic, which spread from Asia to more than two dozen countries around the world, had passed from civet cats to humans. Scientists have also identified civet cats as a possible “intermediate host” for COVID-19, as the novel coronavirus believed to have originated in bats mutated into a form that could infect humans.

If civet cats do not die before their usefulness to the kopi luwak industry has expired, the stressed, sick animals may be sold at live-animal markets, putting them in direct contact with humans and animals of other species. This creates the perfect breeding ground for animal-borne diseases, such as coronaviruses, to mutate and pass from one host to another before spreading to humans.

Labelling Lies

Although kopi luwak is often advertised as “wild-sourced”, one farmer told an eyewitness that it would be nearly impossible to source it exclusively from the wild.

Producers also suggested deliberately mislabelling coffee from captive civet cats. One admitted that they may collect a small amount of faeces produced by free-roaming wild civet cats in the forest and mix it in with the faeces produced by the caged civet cats so they can claim that their coffee is wild-sourced.

You Can Help

Don’t be duped – make sure your coffee doesn’t contain cruelty. Please take action now and tell Bacha Coffee to stop selling “cat poop coffee”: