Civets treated cruelly to extract coffee, animal rights group says
Jakarta - Civets have gone insane as a result of being caged and fed excessively to make them excrete prized civet coffee, ananimal rights group said Thursday.
Civet coffee, made from the beans of coffee berries that have been excreted by Asian palm civets, has become the most expensive coffee in the world in recent years.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said its three-month investigation in eight villages Indonesia and the Philippines this year found that civets were confined in filthy and barren cages by coffee farmers for up to three years before being released into the wild.
Undercover footage taken from farms where civets were kept showed the animals exhibiting neurotic behaviour such as incessant pacing, spinning, bar-biting and head-bobbing, the group said.
"Although unappetizing, drinking coffee made from beans that were plucked from faeces isn't the most revolting aspect of civet coffee," said Jason Baker, a PETA vice president in Asia.
"Purchasing a product that's the direct result of animal abuse supports that abuse, which is why PETA is asking consumers to boycott civet coffee," he said.
Baker said even though it was impossible to produce large amounts of coffee from beans excreted by wild civets, some of the farms that kept civets advertise their beans as "wild-sourced".
A farmer told PETA that some of the civets died after being released to the wild because they lacked vitamins and nutrition and were fed too many berries while in confinement, Baker said.//DPA
