Victory! The East India Company Drops Cruel Civet Cat Coffee
After hearing from PETA, The East India Company, a boutique food and drinks company, has agreed to stop selling kopi luwak.
The coffee – also known as “cat-poop coffee” – is sourced from the faeces of Asian palm civets, who are caged for life.
The East India Company has done the right thing by taking this vile product off its shelves.
What Is Kopi Luwak?
To make kopi luwak, civet cats are fed a diet high in – or exclusively made up of – coffee berries. Coffee beans are then collected from the animals’ faeces and made into coffee sold to tourists in cafés around the world for up to £60 per cup.
Disgrace, Not Delicacy
The East India Company’s decision follows a recent PETA video exposé revealing that civet cats in Bali, Indonesia, are kept in small, waste-filled cages with barely any room to move around. Many had open wounds or exhibited stereotypic behaviour indicative of extreme stress, such as pacing constantly.
No cup of coffee is worth trapping a sensitive animal in a filthy cage and forcing them to endure physical deprivation and psychological torment.
Brewing Future Pandemics
The kopi luwak industry also presents a pandemic risk: caging animals amid their own waste subjects them to stress, suppresses their immune system, and creates a breeding ground for zoonotic diseases.
Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) spread from civet cats to humans. Civet cats who are no longer useful to the kopi luwak industry are sometimes sold to live-animal markets like the one at which the novel coronavirus is believed to have originated.
Tell Bacha Coffee to Cut the Crap
Never drink kopi luwak, and urge Bacha Coffee to make the same kind decision as The East India Company:
