I live in Thailand.
There are coconut trees in front of my house, and everywhere nearby, both farmed, or on residential land.
Every few months, a local team comes buy with a monkey on the back of their pick-up, and they spend a day harvesting the coconuts with a monkey on a long leash. For residential and hotel properties, the trees must be cleared regularly for safety, because falling coconuts are common, and no joke. The nuts of course find their way into the local supply chain.
I’ve never seen* a working monkey be deliberately mistreated or abused. They seem to go about their business quite pragmatically. I have more sympathy for the way the immigrant laborers (Myanmar, Laos etc) are exploited by their bosses.
I don’t see that working monkeys are any better or worse than our other working animals, like guide or guard dogs, race or show horses, water buffalo, or yes, even elephants. Bad conditions and mistreatment can occur anywhere, and is to be deplored. But normal working requirements make it in the owners best interests to keep their animals safe, comfortable and sane**.
The linked video, despite being their most emotive hidden camera “gotcha” exposé they could get, showed no mis-treatment that I haven’t seen much much worse applied to chained-up guard dogs around the world.
I’d have more concern about the clear misery of battery hens, caged pigs, the occupants of Chinese manufacturing plants, and immigrant labour workers in camps around the world. But not enough to stop eating bacon and eggs.
“Chained around the neck” = “Has a collar and leash” just like everybody’s dog.
“Day in and day out” = goes to work regularly, and works for less time than its handler does. They certainly take breaks. Pity the wage-slave in all walks of life if you want to, but this activity is hardly unique.
As this is PETA, then of course my whatabout-ism may be met with “Yes, those are all horrible too, we should ban guide dogs”. This is indeed suggested in one of the links in this post. And I can’t argue with that end of the spectrum.
I’m no animal psychologist, but I don’t think that many Wild vs Domesticated arguments go far when a baby has been hand-reared from birth. Is that argument distinct from keeping caged birds or aquarium fish?
Taking a baby from a wild mother to do so is probably the worst part of the hypothetical scenario, but I dunno if that’s a common scenario in the industry. But objectively worse fates happen to wild venison and salmon.
To be consistent in this sort of boycott, I think we would have to cease doing business with any company who had any properties guarded by chained or ill-treated dogs. I genuinely do feel that a manic guard dog chained up all day has a much worse life, and shows more suffering, behavioural problems and mental damage than the local tree-climbers do.
I’d actually endorse a campaign to phase out the use of dogs as attack animals in “ethical” businesses.
* Not that it may not happen somewhere else, of course
** Until market forces push them to over-do it in some direction
