Several British supermarket chains have stopped selling coconut water and milk from certain companies after it emerged that the products were harvested using "monkey slave labor," The Telegraph reports.
Animal rights organisations have sharply criticized Thai farms which use pigtailed macaques, often stolen from the wild, to climb trees and harvest coconuts. They are often forced to carry items heavier than their body weight, and kept in tiny cages when not at work, or chained to tires that restrict their movement. Many have their teeth pulled out so that they cannot bite their handlers.
Whereas a human can only gather around 80 coconuts a day, male monkeys can gather around 1,600 per day, and females around 600.