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TIL there’s monkey slave labor


Immaculate Vibes

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This is an interesting thought exercise. Is the issue the treatment of the monkeys, or the fact that the monkeys are working at all? I would say if you're smart enough to devise a scheme where monkeys are being productive for you then go for it. I guess I would hope the monkeys are treated well, but is anyone shopping at walmart oblivious to the fact that we raise pigs and cattle en masse in shitty conditions then slaughter them? I mean - how much bullshit at Walmart is manufactured by de facto human being slave laborers? 

I can't say I'm pro monkey "slave" labor but I'm curious where most people would draw this line. I suppose it's mostly to do with monkeys' resemblance to ourselves. 

Edited by ztejas
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TL:DR PETA is full of shit

 

I posted this somewhere on a Thailand thread on TOS, but basically this story is utter bullshit from PETA scrabbling for attention and donations. This practice is largely a cooperation between the human and monkey and this statement from PETA is about as ludicrous as...any other statement from PETA:

Quote

 “The coconut trade uses social monkeys as chained-up coconut-picking machines, depriving them of any opportunity to eat, play, or spend time with their families,” PETA Executive vice president Tracy Reiman said in a statement.

No one with large farms is using monkeys to harvest their coconuts. Monkeys are inefficient and a pain in the ass to keep and manage in any quantity. Why the hell would you pay and keep a monkey handler + a monkey when you could just pay the handler to harvest coconuts directly? On bulk farms, harvesting one coconut at a time is utter stupidity. They cut the entire cluster and deliver it to market. Faster and easier to transport.

 

NPR did their own investigation 7yrs ago:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/10/19/448960760/monkeys-pick-coconuts-in-thailand-are-they-abused-or-working-animals

 

Article from 2yrs ago about someone who actually has monkeys trained to pick coconuts. They provide a community service for local villagers who don't have a way to pick their coconuts. Yes some of these coconuts get sold to companies including Chaokoh. Most don't get sold to corporations, they get used at home or sold at the local village market.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-are-coconuts-picked

 

As to the statement from PETA? No one in Thailand supports letting monkeys roam free and spend time with their families. They destroy everything, get in fights, and overpopulate worse than rabbits. - these "free range with family" monkeys have it far worse than any of the trained coconut monkeys above, and periodically the military comes in and "relocates" a portion of the monkey population to reduce the overpopulation problem. There is never any detail on where the monkeys are "relocated" - you can read between the lines on that one, but I guarantee PETA would love it. This problem is not far from where I live:

https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/monkey-mayhem-hungry-macaques-run-amok-in-thai-city-after-coronavirus-sees-tourism-tumble/

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TL:DR PETA is full of shit
 
I posted this somewhere on a Thailand thread on TOS, but basically this story is utter bullshit from PETA scrabbling for attention and donations. This practice is largely a cooperation between the human and monkey and this statement from PETA is about as ludicrous as...any other statement from PETA:
 “The coconut trade uses social monkeys as chained-up coconut-picking machines, depriving them of any opportunity to eat, play, or spend time with their families,” PETA Executive vice president Tracy Reiman said in a statement.
No one with large farms is using monkeys to harvest their coconuts. Monkeys are inefficient and a pain in the ass to keep and manage in any quantity. Why the hell would you pay and keep a monkey handler + a monkey when you could just pay the handler to harvest coconuts directly? On bulk farms, harvesting one coconut at a time is utter stupidity. They cut the entire cluster and deliver it to market. Faster and easier to transport.
 
NPR did their own investigation 7yrs ago:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/10/19/448960760/monkeys-pick-coconuts-in-thailand-are-they-abused-or-working-animals
 
Article from 2yrs ago about someone who actually has monkeys trained to pick coconuts. They provide a community service for local villagers who don't have a way to pick their coconuts. Yes some of these coconuts get sold to companies including Chaokoh. Most don't get sold to corporations, they get used at home or sold at the local village market.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-are-coconuts-picked
 
As to the statement from PETA? No one in Thailand supports letting monkeys roam free and spend time with their families. They destroy everything, get in fights, and overpopulate worse than rabbits. - these "free range with family" monkeys have it far worse than any of the trained coconut monkeys above, and periodically the military comes in and "relocates" a portion of the monkey population to reduce the overpopulation problem. There is never any detail on where the monkeys are "relocated" - you can read between the lines on that one, but I guarantee PETA would love it. This problem is not far from where I live:
https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/monkey-mayhem-hungry-macaques-run-amok-in-thai-city-after-coronavirus-sees-tourism-tumble/

Maybe you should treat your monkey slaves better and you wouldn’t be all sensitive about it.
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22 hours ago, Sam Lin said:

TL:DR PETA is full of shit

 

I posted this somewhere on a Thailand thread on TOS, but basically this story is utter bullshit from PETA scrabbling for attention and donations. This practice is largely a cooperation between the human and monkey and this statement from PETA is about as ludicrous as...any other statement from PETA:

No one with large farms is using monkeys to harvest their coconuts. Monkeys are inefficient and a pain in the ass to keep and manage in any quantity. Why the hell would you pay and keep a monkey handler + a monkey when you could just pay the handler to harvest coconuts directly? On bulk farms, harvesting one coconut at a time is utter stupidity. They cut the entire cluster and deliver it to market. Faster and easier to transport.

 

NPR did their own investigation 7yrs ago:

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/10/19/448960760/monkeys-pick-coconuts-in-thailand-are-they-abused-or-working-animals

 

Article from 2yrs ago about someone who actually has monkeys trained to pick coconuts. They provide a community service for local villagers who don't have a way to pick their coconuts. Yes some of these coconuts get sold to companies including Chaokoh. Most don't get sold to corporations, they get used at home or sold at the local village market.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-are-coconuts-picked

 

As to the statement from PETA? No one in Thailand supports letting monkeys roam free and spend time with their families. They destroy everything, get in fights, and overpopulate worse than rabbits. - these "free range with family" monkeys have it far worse than any of the trained coconut monkeys above, and periodically the military comes in and "relocates" a portion of the monkey population to reduce the overpopulation problem. There is never any detail on where the monkeys are "relocated" - you can read between the lines on that one, but I guarantee PETA would love it. This problem is not far from where I live:

https://www.buddhistdoor.net/news/monkey-mayhem-hungry-macaques-run-amok-in-thai-city-after-coronavirus-sees-tourism-tumble/

Obviously PETA is fucking regarded - we all know that. I thought it was stranger that Wal-Mart would pull a product like that even if those allegations were true. I made the point above, but it seems a little hypocritical that effective human slave labor is A-ok for their bottom line but get some monkeys involved and we're gonna have to pull your product from the shelves. Hopefully it gets rectified for Chaokoh and I bet whatever exec spearheaded this gets a talking to. 

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Didn't have Mexican drug cartel monkeys in body armor on my bingo card.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/monkey-bullet-proof-vest-killed-deadly-narco-shootout-mexico/

Quote

Mexican narcos' fascination with exotic animals was on display this week after a spider monkey dressed up as a drug gang mascot was killed in a shootout, a 450-pound tiger wandered the streets in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, and a man died after trying to pet a captive tiger in a cartel-dominated area of western Michoacan state.

Like scenes out of a narco television series, exotic animals have been long been part of the Mexican criminal underworld.

Quote

Photos from the scene of a shootout Tuesday in Texcaltitlan with police in which 11 drug gang members died, showed a small monkey - dressed in a tiny camouflage jacket and a tiny "bullet-proof" vest - sprawled across the body of a dead gunman who was apparently his owner.

 

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