The White Lotus creator Mike White—who filmed the show’s third season on the Thai island of Ko Samui —is calling on Thailand’s prime minister to end the use of forced monkey labour following the release of never-before-seen footage inside the “schools” where endangered baby pig-tailed macaques are torn away from their mothers, chained for years, and driven insane by endless confinement—all so that they can be forcibly trained to pick coconuts.
“I have just finished filming season three of The White Lotus on Samui. It’s a beautiful place, but I was shocked to learn from my friends at PETA that there and elsewhere in Thailand, monkeys are forced to work for the coconut industry,” White writes to Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. “I urge you to end this exploitation of our fellow primates and ensure that Thailand’s entire coconut industry transitions to humane harvesting methods that don’t rely on forced monkey labor.”
PETA Asia investigators documented that baby monkeys – who were abducted from their families in nature or bred on site and taken from their mothers when they were as young as 3 months old – were tethered on short ropes and chains, kept in flooded or trash-strewn areas with no shelter from extreme weather, and denied comfort, enrichment, or adequate socialization. Many of them were tied to tiny cages on which their skin was chafed raw from the metal bars. Monkeys paced neurotically and some ran frantically while attached to tethers, repeatedly choking themselves on their collars.
PETA notes that the schools – which are promoted to tourists on the Thai government website – put on deceptive coconut-picking “demonstrations” for visitors that involve adult monkeys who have been abused and broken. PETA Asia is calling on the Thai government to shut down these schools.
“These schools, which train baby monkeys to pick coconuts, also con unsuspecting tourists into supporting an industry where baby monkeys are snatched from their mothers, chained up, and deprived of everything that’s natural and important to them,” says PETA Senior Campaigns Advisor Mimi Bekhechi. “PETA is reminding consumers to avoid coconut milk from Thailand and instead ensure their products come only from countries where monkey labour isn’t used, like India, Indonesia, and the Philippines. We’re also urging the Thai government to shut down these abusive training schools.”
