UN INT Intro Text w/ Centered Large Responsive Image - *Important Note* You must UNLINK this shared library component before making page-specific customizations.
PETA’s latest investigation into the cruel kopi luwak industry shows that despite an international outcry about the suffering of civet cats following our previous investigations, nothing has changed. Our shocking new footage from a kopi luwak coffee farm in Indonesia reveals the toll that constant confinement to a tiny wire cage has taken on a sensitive Asian palm civet cat.
The stressed, terrified animal paces and circles, desperate to escape the filthy prison cell in which he’s forced to eat unnatural amounts of coffee berries so that his excrement can be sold as kopi luwak or “cat poop coffee.” After being ripped from his home in nature and made to endure continuous contact with humans, whom he naturally fears, this civet cat has been driven insane. He is just one of the many suffering animals our investigators filmed during their third look inside kopi luwak farms in Indonesia—the world’s top producer of civet coffee— earlier this year.
Although Asian palm civet cats are a protected species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, these most recent findings mirror what investigators have uncovered during previous exposés of the kopi luwak industry: pervasive cruelty on every single farm. PETA investigators found civet cats in cages encrusted with feces, rotting berries, and other filth. With no dark place to sleep, the nocturnal animals were deprived of adequate rest, and they panted incessantly in the inescapable heat. Investigators saw several with open, bloody wounds, but the animals didn’t appear to receive any veterinary care. Many were losing their fur from malnourishment. In nature, civet cats eat a naturally varied diet, but kopi luwak producers make them ingest an unhealthy amount of coffee berries in order to maximize profits.
‘Wild-Sourced’ Is a Wild Lie
Since the release of PETA’s multiple investigations into the industry, spanning almost a decade, many businesses have made the compassionate decision to pull kopi luwak from their shelves and cut ties with this cruel industry. Others, including distributors in Japan, one of the biggest markets for kopi luwak, choose to continue profiting from animals’ misery for a novelty product that no one needs, despite having heard from us about the rampant cruelty.
Customers and retailers are being deceived by producers who deliberately mislabel the beans from captive civet cats as “wild-sourced.” Our investigators were told that it would be nearly impossible to collect enough wild civet cat excrement to produce the coffee. One producer admitted that they may collect a small amount of beans excreted by free-roaming civet cats, mix it with the beans from caged animals, and misleadingly call the coffee “wild-sourced.” Another told an investigator who was posing as a buyer that he could just label the coffee produced by caged civet cats as “wild.” This coffee can then be exported anywhere in the world and sold as “wild-sourced.”
One farmer explained that civet cats are generally kept caged for a maximum of three years before they’re released back into nature and that the stress of confinement and lack of nutrition cause them to lose their fur. Another farmer compared civet cats who eat too many coffee berries to human smokers, since the animals’ health deteriorates greatly during captivity because of lack of vitamins and nutrition. The same farmer told PETA’s investigator that some civet cats don’t survive after they’re released.
Brewing the Next Pandemic
The coffee is exported all over the world, even though, following the SARS outbreak in China, researchers found that the SARS coronavirus had jumped from civet cats to humans. Scientists have also identified civet cats as a possible “intermediate host” for COVID-19, potentially allowing the virus to mutate and pass from bats to humans.
Civet cats who are “lucky” enough to survive beyond their usefulness to the kopi luwak industry are sometimes sold to live-animal markets, just like the one in which the novel coronavirus is believed to have originated, putting them in direct contact with humans and providing the perfect opportunity for SARS or some other virus to mutate and jump from one host to another.
It’s Time to Cut the Crap
Kopi luwak isn’t a delicacy—it’s a disgrace. No matter which country you’re in or what assurances you’ve received, please don’t purchase or drink it.
PETA sent these companies evidence that “wild” civet cat coffee is essentially a lie, but they’ve ignored requests to stop selling it. Please urge them to stop funding cruelty to civet cats by ending the sale of kopi luwak today. In addition, if you see kopi luwak being sold at a retailer, please speak up! Talk to the manager, send the company a letter, and let us know about your actions.
Note: Personalized letters always work best. Feel free to use the sample one provided, but keep in mind that your letter will carry more weight if you write your own customized subject line and message.