🐱 Costco pulled a coconut milk brand for allegedly using forced monkey labor

https://www.mic.com/p/costco-pulled-a-coconut-milk-brand-for-allegedly-using-forced-monkey-labor-40686658

We usually think of exploitative labor practices as human-on-human crimes. Unfortunately for the whole of humanity, big business don’t limit their oppressive and cruel labor practices to homo sapiens. Thai coconut milk company Chaokoh was outed last month for allegedly forcing monkey laborers to pick coconuts, and Costco is the latest retail giant to drop the brand from its shelves in response.


People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — PETA — released a red flag expose of Chaokoh in August after concluding a rigorous investigation. PETA asserts that the company had confined monkeys to cramped cages, chained them, abused them, and forced them to pick as many as 1,000 coconuts a day on 8 different farms in Thailand, CBS reported. The truly heartbreaking videos released by PETA show monkeys driven mad by their inhumane and outrageous treatment.

“We have made it clear to the supplier that we do not support the use of monkeys for harvesting and that all harvesting must be done by human labor,” Ken Kimble, Costco’s vice president, told USA Today. For its part, Chaokoh issued a statement that they, “do not engage the use of monkey labour in our coconut plantations.” Yeah, okay. It’s really hard to find this kind of corporate posturing credible when the whole coconut industry in Thailand is under scrutiny for its monkey labor issues.


As our collective eyes open to the multitude of human tragedies we are currently facing, it may feel easy to shrug this one off. Clearly, we have a lot of more urgent concerns. This is undoubtedly true, and also, from where I sit, the forced labor of monkeys is just another sad symptom of the cruel virus we call capitalism.

Unfortunately, we need the enthusiastic participation of corporate megaliths to wipe out this particular strain of cruelty. The good news is that, in addition to Costco, some major retail players are saying no to the inhumane treatment of monkeys. Giant Food, Food Lion and Stop & Shop — all owned by Ahold Delhaize — and Cost Plus World Market, owned by Bed Bath & Beyond, dropped the brand in September. Neither Walmart nor Target have commented on whether they will follow suit.

 

[Pope Negro Joe the XIIIth]

@CatParty I was just about to post this story, and now I'm sad you didn't use "No, I'm not being racist" as a subtitle.

 

[CatParty]

@CatParty I was just about to post this story, and now I'm sad you didn't use "No, I'm not being racist" as a subtitle.

Lol I was gonna subtitle “no the other monkey”

 

[RodgerDodger]

I think we all know where this ends up

 

[WinchesterPremium]

That is kinda awesome. It should be a selling point.

 

[Kornheiser]

Monkeys can be trained to perform tasks. Some disabled people have helper monkeys.

Pray for Mojo.

 

[KingCoelacanth]

Unfortunately for the whole of humanity, big business don’t limit their oppressive and cruel labor practices to homo sapiens

Imagine getting upset that its not humans who are being exploited

 

[Tasty Tatty]

I'm gonna doubt this one even if PETA has "evidence" to prove it because these fuckers could have well made it up.

About two months ago, they did a similar stunt with a video about how some alpaca farm was murdering them for their fur which makes no sense. They got a lot of teens to tweet how they shouldn't buy alpaca clothes despite that's how dozens of Andean communities make money to survive. The topic was never brought again, no investigation, nothing.

If I had to guess, I'd say Peta uses their influence to target certain brands for unknown reasons that only them know and it's not because they hurt animals.

 

[melty]

That's cool. Where is the proof that these are working for that company and all the other crap they accuse them of. PETA goes hard on the visuals but never backs any of that shit up.

Um, did you not see the sad baby monkey face? Or the monkey pacing back and forth while the narrator says the monkeys go INSANE? Isn't that proof that monkey is INSANE? There is no other reason for them to have a clip of a monkey walking in circles for a few seconds.

This is honestly super weak, even by Peta's standards. The monkeys all look clean and healthy, and the footage is so random. Even the cages look really clean, and they're pretty clearly just transporting the monkeys, because they're on a truck...

 

[The Fool]

I'm gonna doubt this one even if PETA has "evidence" to prove it because these fuckers could have well made it up.

About two months ago, they did a similar stunt with a video about how some alpaca farm was murdering them for their fur which makes no sense. They got a lot of teens to tweet how they shouldn't buy alpaca clothes despite that's how dozens of Andean communities make money to survive. The topic was never brought again, no investigation, nothing.

If I had to guess, I'd say Peta uses their influence to target certain brands for unknown reasons that only them know and it's not because they hurt animals.

PETA is extremely scummy. They'll ruin a business' reputation, regardless if they were actually harming animals or not, then take all the animals they owned and euthanize them, then get tons of donations from people. They exclusively work for money. If EA is in the business of shitting out half-assed games for profit, then PETA is in the business of murdering industry and animal alike for profit. They are the very demons they claim to fight and are shameless in their endeavors.
I mean, this is shit everyone figured out a decade ago. It's why they constantly say various famous games like World of Warcraft or Mario is harmful to animals. They only want attention and profit, they don't give one single shit about animals. As soon as animals come into their possession, they just kill them.
PETA is to animal rescue efforts as Peter Popoff is to Christianity.

 

[LinkinParkxNaruto[AMV]]

“We have made it clear to the supplier that we do not support the use of monkeys for harvesting and that all harvesting must be done by human labor,” Ken Kimble,

too inhumane for monkeys, but just right for humans, conveniently the cramped cages are already child sized. This is the cruel price we must pay for coconut milk.

 

[Cardef1121]

I'm glad no one asked me to explain myself jokingly referring to white Americans as cows...

But I will point out that it's pretty ridiculous and hypocritical to pull a product for the exploitation of an animal's "labor" for one product while a wide array and vast number of other animals are slaughtered to provide other products in the same store.

 

[Snekposter]

PETA even once talked shit about 40k because the Space Wolves wear pelts of Fenrisian Totally-Not-Wolves. Pay them no attention because they just want rage and attention, and were founded by a woman (shocker!) even crazier than Sanger who thought that by killing animals she'd be freeing them from the pain of being owned by humans.

 

[kcbbq]

PETA even once talked shit about 40k because the Space Wolves wear pelts of Fenrisian Totally-Not-Wolves. Pay them no attention because they just want rage and attention, and were founded by a woman (shocker!) even crazier than Sanger who thought that by killing animals she'd be freeing them from the pain of being owned by humans.

Whatever helps them sleep at night after a hard day's shopping having to lug around their emotional support dogs zipped into their purses with only their heads showing. It's hard work.

 

[ChikN10der]

It's absurd any company would pay attention to peta.

All animal labor is forced, they literally can not consent.

Have they seen where bacon comes from? The pigs don't donate it...

When there aren't any humans being exploited we can revisit the monkeys. Until then they need to shut the fuck up.