Morrisons Says No to Coconut Milk Cruelty After Monkey Abuse Exposés
Morrisons Says No to Coconut Milk Cruelty After Monkey Abuse Exposés
London – Morrisons has become the latest retailer to distance itself from forced monkey labour after learning about PETA Asia’s multiple investigations into the abuse of monkeys in Thailand’s coconut industry. Morrisons own-brand coconut milk range will now be sourced from Merit Foods Products, an award-winning Thai company verified by PETA Asia, and Chef’s Choice, as not using monkey labour. PETA has asked Morrisons to extend this policy to all external branded canned coconut milk products, and urges everyone to avoid buying Thai coconut milk due to rampant abuse in the industry.
Photos from the PETA Asia investigation are available here, and video footage is available here.
PETA Asia’s extensive investigations in Thailand over the last six years have implicated coconut pickers, brokers, farms, and monkey-training operations in nine provinces, including top-producing ones. The group’s May 2024 investigation revealed animal suffering at monkey “training schools”, which are shamefully promoted by the Thai government. Endangered baby pig-tailed macaques were tethered on ropes and chains with no shelter from extreme weather. They were denied comfort, enrichment, or adequate socialisation. Many of them were tied to tiny metal cages on which their skin was chafed raw. Monkeys paced neurotically, and some ran frantically while attached to tethers, repeatedly choking themselves on their collars.
“Morrisons has taken compassionate action to avoid cruelly obtained coconut milk, and we urge the Thai government to immediately shut down abusive monkey “schools” and ban monkey labour,” says PETA Vice President of Vegan Corporate Projects Dawn Carr. “PETA is calling on retailers to check all supply chains and stop selling any Thai coconut milk products linked to this exploitative industry.”
PETA Asia’s previous investigations found that the use of monkey labour is pervasive throughout the Thai coconut-farming industry. It is linked to multiple companies (including AB World Foods, Ampawa, Ampol Food, Suree Interfoods, and Theppadungporn Coconut Co.) and brands (Amoy, Aroy-D, Blue Dragon, Chaokoh, KTC, Natco, PraoHom, and West Indian Pride). Merit Food Products is the only Thai producer to follow PETA’s guidance to actually become monkey-free. No assurance or certification scheme from the Thai government or other Thai suppliers can be trusted at this time.
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.uk or follow the group on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram.
Contact:
Jennifer White +44 (0) 20 7837 6327; [email protected]
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