HelloFresh is accused of forcing MONKEYS to work in slave labour camp where animals are chained and abused in horror conditions
Monkeys are being tortured and chained up to collect coconuts used in HelloFresh products, a bombshell report from an animal rights group has alleged.
An investigation from PETA Asia has allegedly found that the meal-kit company uses coconut milk that was sourced from monkey labour in Thailand.
The organisation has alleged the animals are forced to pick coconuts all day, and spend their life in chains being abused by their handlers.
PETA visited 57 operations across the southeast Asian country, and alleged ‘animals were being abused at each one’.
The organisation has since called for a mass boycott of HelloFresh, alleging some monkeys were seen ‘chained on trash-strewn patches of dirt and flooded areas with car tires as their only ‘shelter’ from the elements.’
‘One worker told investigators that the monkeys will be forced to pick coconuts for more than a decade and then spend the rest of their lives on a chain,’ the report claimed.
The abuse was allegedly happening to monkeys across nine provinces in Thailand.
One trainer was allegedly seen ‘striking a screaming monkey’, before dangling him by the chain around his neck and whipping him with the tether.
Another female monkey allegedly used for breeding was kept chained alone in the sunshine without water, the report claimed.
Other monkeys were allegedly kept in cages when they weren’t picking coconuts.
‘Coconut pickers said that the monkeys sometimes incur broken bones from falling out of trees or being yanked down, and a worker confirmed that most of the monkeys are kidnapped from their families in nature, even though the species exploited by the coconut trade are threatened or endangered, the report added.
PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said the companies allegedly sourcing coconut milk from monkey labour camps ‘lack a conscience’.
‘PETA is calling on everyone … to stop buying canned coconut milk from Thailand until monkeys are no longer used and abused for profit,’ he said.
A HelloFresh international spokesperson said: ‘HelloFresh strictly condemns any use of monkey labor in its supply chain, and we take a hard position of not procuring from suppliers or selling coconut products which have been found to use monkey labour.
‘We have written confirmation from all of our suppliers – in the U.S. and globally – that they do not engage in these practices.’
HelloFresh operates in countries around the world including the UK, Australia, Japan, the US, Canada, and New Zealand.
