On Monday, Target became the latest retailer to stop selling Chaokoh coconut milk, according to a statement from PETA. In recent months, the animal rights organization has led a boycott campaign against Chaokoh, claiming that it uses the forced labor of monkeys to make its product.
In a statement, PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said: “PETA exhibits have confirmed that Thai coconut growers are exploiting monkeys and lying about it, so there is no excuse for any grocery store to keep Chaokoh on its shelves.” . The organization applauded Target for joining “thousands of stores” that agreed to sever ties. Wegmans and Costco.
In an e-mailed statement to Gizmodo, a spokesman for the target said: “We take the claims against Chaokoh seriously and, given that they have not been able to respond sufficiently to the concerns raised, we have decided to remove their product from our assortment in November 2020 ”.
Chaokoh said USA Today in November that it does not use the monkeys’ labor force and indicated a third party audit which stated that it had randomly selected 64 of the 817 coconut farms for inspection and found no coconuts.
G / O Media may receive a commission
The PETA allegations come from multiple investigations carried out the coconut harvesting regions of Thailand. He reported that these coconut farms take monkeys from their mothers when they are young, give them rigid metal collars and chain them. The monkeys are then trained to climb trees in their general area and pull the coconuts for collection. It is said that canine-resistant monkeys have their canine teeth removed. According to the survey, some monkeys are forced to maintain two jobs because their owners force them to participate in “circus-style shows”. (Video with the monkeys can be seen here, but animal lovers should be warned that it is a huge nonsense.)
PETA says that Brazil, Colombia, Hawaii and other regions manage to produce coconuts very well, without forcing the monkeys to make their claim and maintain a list of brands which produce coconut water in an ethical manner. The activist organization said it was now focusing on the pressure of one decreasing list of retailers says he resists.