It’s the PETA Victory Everyone’s Talking About, Including Stephen Colbert

It’s the PETA victory everyone’s talking about, including USA Today, CNN, and comedian Stephen Colbert: Costco cut ties with coconut milk producer Chaokoh after discussions with PETA and hearing from thousands of our kind supporters.

During The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Friday, the television host talked about how “Costco is pulling products from its shelves that are allegedly made with forced monkey labor.” Colbert appeared dumbfounded, replying to his own question (“Forced monkey labor?”) with a simple statement: “That’s terrible. Monkeys should never be used as forced labor.”

“The product in question is Chaokoh brand coconut milk, which allegedly is made with the help of chained-up monkeys who pick around 400 coconuts a day and are then stuffed in their cages until their next shift,” Colbert explained to his audience.

While The Late Show host never strayed far from humor, he did pause for a serious moment to “reiterate [his] firm position”: “Exploiting monkeys is abuse, it’s wrong, it’s never acceptable,” he stated simply. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Exploiting Monkeys Is Abuse …

… and Colbert isn’t the only one who knows it: Costco, Walgreens, Food Lion, Stop & Shop, and thousands of other stores have banned coconut milk brands that use monkey labor.

In July, PETA Asia blew the lid off the Thai coconut industry’s use of captive monkeys—a shocking investigation revealed that terrified young monkeys in Thailand are kept chained, abusively trained, and forced to climb trees to pick coconuts that are used to make coconut milk and other products (not coconut sugar or coconut water), including some sold in the U.S.

Some monkeys are reportedly illegally abducted from their families and homes when they’re just babies. Monkeys who may try to defend themselves might have their canine teeth pulled out. It’s why so many people are choosing to leave Chaokoh coconut milk and the brand’s other exploitative coconut products on the shelf, instead opting for brands that don’t use coconuts that monkeys were forced to pick.

For Kulap and his friends, please, join PETA, Colbert, and so many others in speaking up for monkeys: Click below to keep the momentum going.