A whole lot of monkey business is going on at Whole Foods’ grand opening at The Shops at Evergreen Walk as PETA supporters draped in chains and wearing monkey masks and prisoner garb dump humanely picked coconuts outside the store to condemn the chain’s continued sale of Thai coconut milk, even though it knows that Thailand’s coconut industry is driven by the forced labor of endangered pig-tailed macaques.
Coconuts are dumped outside a Whole Foods store. Credit: PETA
“Whole Foods’ continued sale of products implicated in the abuse of an endangered species is particularly appalling coming from a company that claims to care about animal welfare,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on Whole Foods to live up to its values and sell coconut milk only from countries where monkey labor isn’t used, including India, Indonesia, and the Philippines.”
Many monkeys used in Thailand’s coconut-picking industry are illegally snatched from their natural habitat as babies, fitted with rigid metal collars, chained, whipped, and forced to climb trees to pick heavy coconuts. Their canine teeth are sometimes pulled out in order to leave them defenseless. Because the industry and the Thai government lie about their systemic reliance on forced monkey labor, it’s impossible to guarantee that any coconut milk from Thailand is free of it. Multiple companies that produce coconut milk sold at Whole Foods were named by industry workers in a PETA Asia investigation as having used coconuts obtained by monkey labor. HelloFresh, Purple Carrot, and Performance Food Group stopped sourcing coconut milk from Thailand following PETA Asia’s exposé.
SeaQuest aquariums are cruel indoor mall petting zoos where animals have been deprived of veterinary care, confined to cramped enclosures, and forced into direct contact with visitors—some of whom they’ve injured. Wild animals don’t want to interact with humans, and subjecting them to a barrage of unnatural, direct-contact encounters with the public is both stressful for them and dangerous for everyone involved.
SeaQuest, the Houston Interactive Aquarium & Animal Preserve, the San Antonio Aquarium, and Austin Aquarium are all operated by members of the Covino family. Vince Covino owns SeaQuest, and his brother Ammon, who is a convicted wildlife trafficker, is involved in the management of the Houston, San Antonio, and Austin facilities. At the now-closed Portland Aquarium in Oregon, which was also owned by the Covinos, more than 200 animals—including seahorses, stingrays, garden eels, bamboo sharks, and other species of fish—allegedly died in just a few months due to starvation, infections, and other seemingly preventable causes.
SeaQuest and the other Covino-owned aquariums have an ever-growing list of U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) citations:
SeaQuest was cited after an employee hit otters with a metal food bowl.
SeaQuest was cited after five sugar gliders horrifically died after they became trapped in a PVC pipe and a wallaby named Ben drowned in a tank because he didn’t have any way to climb out.
The Houston Interactive Aquarium & Animal Preserve and the San Antonio Aquarium have both been cited for failing to keep animals’ enclosures at proper temperatures, which could be detrimental to their health and well-being.
Austin Aquarium was cited after inspectors observed two otters exhibiting abnormal behavior, which is a sign of severe psychological distress.
Since the USDA has failed to prevent these aquariums from exploiting animals, it’s up to kind people like you to speak up for their victims.
Please take action below to tell SeaQuest, the Houston Interactive Aquarium & Animal Preserve, the San Antonio Aquarium, and Austin Aquarium to stop exploiting animals and transfer them all to reputable facilities where they could get the care they deserve—before more die.
Call SeaQuest Littleton at 303-968-1340 (press 7). Ask it to send all the animals there to reputable facilities where they could receive proper veterinary care and live in a more natural environment that meets their complex needs:
On grassroots tours that leverage three of PETA’s virtual reality (VR) programs—“I, Orca,” “I, Chicken,” and “I, Calf”—animal advocates help the public see the world through another species’ eyes. The best part? For “I, Orca” and “I, Chicken,” anyone with access to an Android phone and Google Cardboard can bring these powerful experiences to their community. For “I, Calf,” a VR headset like a Meta Quest 2 or 3 is required.
The ‘I, Orca,’ ‘I, Chicken,’ and ‘I, Calf’ Experiences
Every animal is someone, and these VR systems allow us to observe the world from other animals’ perspectives.
‘I, Orca’
With “I, Orca,” participants can see, hear, and—most importantly—experience feelings like those of orcas subjected to SeaWorld’s cruelty. This empathy project immerses participants in a world where they can swim freely in the ocean with their orca family. They also meet an orca mother—voiced by either Nurse Jackie star Edie Falco or Selena star Constance Marie—who still mourns the baby who was taken from her decades ago and sent to SeaWorld, the marine abusement park that condemned him to a miserable life in tiny tanks.
Although “I, Orca” is a fictional undersea experience, the story it tells is inspired by real events. All orcas now living in captivity were either torn away from their natural ocean homes and families or born into an inescapable marine-animal prison.
PETA believes that everyone who experiences “I, Orca” will learn that SeaWorld inflicts a lifetime of suffering on animals and will, as a result, choose only animal-friendly entertainment.
‘I, Chicken’
This experience places participants in a world where they can flap their wings, communicate with other chickens, take dust baths, and engage in other natural chicken behavior. But as they soon learn, life for each of the 26 million chickens slaughtered every day is hell.
Chickens are inquisitive animals with distinct personalities, keen communication skills, and complex social structures. But on farms, they’re crammed by the tens of thousands into filthy sheds and are bred to grow such unnaturally large upper bodies that their legs often become crippled under their own weight. At the slaughterhouse, their throats are cut and millions of conscious birds are scalded to death in defeathering tanks.
The goal of “I, Chicken” is to help participants see these fellow animals as individuals with interests, wants, and needs, rather than as breasts, wings, and legs.
In this experience, participants discover what it’s like to be a cow born on a dairy farm. Based on a true story, viewers take on the role of a young calf whose mother secretly gave birth to twins and, remembering that farmers had taken her previous babies away, hid one of the newborns to protect him.
Cows are intelligent and have good memories. They’re socially complex, develop friendships over time, and sometimes hold grudges against other cows who treat them badly. They mourn the deaths of and even separation from those they love, sometimes shedding tears over their loss.
The bond between mother and calf is particularly strong, and there are countless reports of mother cows who continue to call and search frantically for their babies after workers have taken them away and sold them to other farms, including to be used for veal.
Grassroots Tours: Use ‘I, Orca,’ ‘I, Chicken,’ and ‘I, Calf’ in Your Advocacy
Are you committed to informing your community about what animals used for food and entertainment are forced to endure? With your help, we can share these experiences around the world at farmers markets, street fairs, local VegFests—the possibilities are endless! Make sure your Android phone fits with our programs by testing it out first:
The “I, Orca” and “I, Chicken” systems are Android app files that should work on any standard-size Android OS phone.
The “I, Calf” video is an mp4 file that can be played on any current-generation VR headset, such as a Meta Quest 2 or 3.
Make sure you have headphones that work with each program.
Everyone who participates in these interactive experiences gains a better likelihood of feeling empathy for orcas, chickens, and cows.
E-mail ActionTeam@peta.org if you have any questions, and we’ll do what we can to make this a seamless, meaningful addition to your advocacy for our fellow animals.
Download and Take Action With VR
Click below to download each VR experience of these grassroots tours:
