So I agree that people should treat animals - whether we're consuming them or experimenting on them or watching them jump through hoops for our entertainment - as ethically as possible. Still, I often find the positions taken by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) to be extreme. Yes, the conditions under which factory chickens live and die are cruel, but are those farms really concentration camps? Is the slaughter of chickens really a Holocaust?
But when it comes to the exploitation of the monkeys of Thailand, the use of monkeys as forced labor, I'm PETA all the way.
PETA investigators from its Asia division found cruelty to monkeys at farms and facilities used by Theppadungporn Coconut Co., according to the animal rights group.
"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," a PETA news release stated. "One coconut farmer confirmed that when monkeys are terrified and try to defend themselves, handlers may have their teeth pulled out." (Source: CNN)
Jeez, it's bad enough worrying about whether human laborers - including children - in many of the Asian countries that produce so much of what we eat, wear, and use are treated terribly: paid a pittance, working under unsafe conditions, living in squalor. Now we have to worry about whether monkeys are being used as slaves?
Most animals (pretty much any and all other than sponges and coral) are to some extent sentient. They feel pain, they experience emotion. But there's sentience and then there's sentience. So, no, I don't think a chicken's life is as valuable as that of a human. But as you climb up the evolutionary chain and get closer to homo sapiens, the sentience gets more sentient.
Monkeys? Okay, they're not as close as our great ape brothers and sisters - common chimps, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans - but they're right up there. In terms of sentience, in terms of intelligence, they're head and shoulders above chickens. Which is why they're being dragooned into picking coconuts when they should be gamboling around in treetops.
Thanks to the PETA investigation, Costco is no longer carrying Chaokoh (a Theppadungporn brand) coconut milk.
Most animals (pretty much any and all other than sponges and coral) are to some extent sentient. They feel pain, they experience emotion. But there's sentience and then there's sentience. So, no, I don't think a chicken's life is as valuable as that of a human. But as you climb up the evolutionary chain and get closer to homo sapiens, the sentience gets more sentient.
Monkeys? Okay, they're not as close as our great ape brothers and sisters - common chimps, bonobos, gorillas, orangutans - but they're right up there. In terms of sentience, in terms of intelligence, they're head and shoulders above chickens. Which is why they're being dragooned into picking coconuts when they should be gamboling around in treetops.
Thanks to the PETA investigation, Costco is no longer carrying Chaokoh (a Theppadungporn brand) coconut milk.
"No kind shopper wants monkeys to be chained up and treated like coconut-picking machines," said PETA President Ingrid Newkirk in a statement. "Costco made the right call to reject animal exploitation."
Not that I'm a coconut milk drinker, but no kind coconut milk drinker wants those monkeys treated so poorly, either.
Other retailers, including Walmart, are looking into the allegations and may call it quits with Chaokoh as well. (You can buy their products on Amazon, if you're so inclined.)
For its part, Theppadungporn has conducted its own investigation and has found no monkey business, and they've "noted that its suppliers have signed memorandums of understanding that there's no monkey labor at their farms."
Maybe I'm just the suspicious type, but I don't know if I'd be so trusting of those MOUs claiming that no monkey labor is being used.
Anyway, Costco will resume carrying the coconut milk once they're satisfied that the coconuts used in Chaokoh milk are harvested by humans, not monkeys.
There's no doubt in my mind that human coconut harvesters will be paid a pittance, and that they're likely living under some pretty miserable conditions. Still, these humans at least theoretically have a choice. They're paid, however piss-poorly. And they're not living in cages. Or forced to perform.
I know, I know. We exploit animals all the time. But pretty much since the advent of the internal combustion engine, we haven't used them to plow our fields or lug us around. And there's something particularly appalling about kidnapping monkeys and making them harvest of not so lovely bunch of coconuts.
Other retailers, including Walmart, are looking into the allegations and may call it quits with Chaokoh as well. (You can buy their products on Amazon, if you're so inclined.)
For its part, Theppadungporn has conducted its own investigation and has found no monkey business, and they've "noted that its suppliers have signed memorandums of understanding that there's no monkey labor at their farms."
Maybe I'm just the suspicious type, but I don't know if I'd be so trusting of those MOUs claiming that no monkey labor is being used.
Anyway, Costco will resume carrying the coconut milk once they're satisfied that the coconuts used in Chaokoh milk are harvested by humans, not monkeys.
There's no doubt in my mind that human coconut harvesters will be paid a pittance, and that they're likely living under some pretty miserable conditions. Still, these humans at least theoretically have a choice. They're paid, however piss-poorly. And they're not living in cages. Or forced to perform.
I know, I know. We exploit animals all the time. But pretty much since the advent of the internal combustion engine, we haven't used them to plow our fields or lug us around. And there's something particularly appalling about kidnapping monkeys and making them harvest of not so lovely bunch of coconuts.
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