Sydney – PETA Asia has released new footage in which investigators documented how civet cats in Bali – the top holiday destination of choice for Australians – are still being abused for kopi luwak, or civet coffee. The group uncovered that when on holiday in Bali, tourists often visit coffee gardens where guides lie, saying that the coffee comes from wild animals when it’s actually obtained from caged civet cats.
The new video can be seen here.
PETA’s previous investigation into civet coffee in 2022 showed that it is made by capturing civet cats in their natural habitat, confining them to miserably small cages, and feeding them an unhealthy, unnatural diet of coffee cherries. The coffee is made from partially digested beans taken from the animals’ faeces.
“Civet cats endure extreme stress and suffering for kopi luwak,” says PETA Senior Campaigns Advisor Mimi Bekhechi. “Next time you’re visiting Bali, choose a cruelty-free brew and help consign this industry to the history books.”
Investigators documented the abuse of civet cats on one farm in Bali and followed the coffee produced there to a coffee garden frequented by tourists. There are dozens of such gardens across the island. On the farm, civet cats were confined to barren cages that were encrusted with faeces, dirt, and decomposing cherries. They paced back and forth and had painful open wounds. A representative told an investigator that tourists would be furious if they knew the truth about the origin of kopi luwak. When investigators visited the coffee garden, a guide lied, denying the use of captive civet cats, even when confronted with the truth.
PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org.au and follow the group on Facebook and Instagram.
Contact:
Sascha Camilli Media@peta.org.au
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