Whole Foods’ Ties to Monkey Labor Prompt Local Alert From PETA

For Immediate Release:
August 11, 2023

Contact:
Nicole Perreira 202-483-7382

An international PETA campaign hitting Whole Foods stores has just launched locally, where a vivid image of a chained macaque from a PETA Asia investigation has popped up at a bus shelter across from the company’s Robson Street location—warning shoppers not to buy coconut milk obtained from Thailand, where forced monkey labor is pervasive.

It’s the latest move blasting Whole Foods’ continued sale of Thai coconut milk even after learning that the country’s coconut-picking industry is fueled by the labor of endangered pig-tailed macaques, many of whom were illegally snatched from their forest homes as babies. Handlers fit them with rigid metal collars, use chains and leashes to choke and control them, and may pull out their canine teeth so that they can’t defend themselves. Several companies that produce coconut milk brands sold at Whole Foods were named by industry workers in PETA Asia’s latest investigation as having sourced coconuts obtained by monkey labor. And because the industry and the Thai government lie about their systemic reliance on forced monkey labor, it’s impossible to guarantee that any coconut milk from Thailand is free of it.

“Whole Foods continues to sell coconut products implicated in PETA Asia’s investigation, which is especially shameful for a company that claims to care about animals,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Whole Foods to sell coconut milk only from countries where monkey labor isn’t used, such as India, Indonesia, and the Philippines.”

The message is located across the street from Whole Foods Market at 1675 Robson St.

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, listen to The PETA Podcast, or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.