chained monkeys - cruel employment plucking coconuts !!

Tropix is an interesting arcade game – involving monkey playing, climbing trees, discovering riches and more.  Monkey Business is a 1952 American comedy film starring Marilyn Monroe. To avoid confusion with the famous 1931 Marx Brothers movie of the same name, this film is sometimes referred to as Howard Hawks' Monkey Business. It is the story of an absent minded chemist testing his latest experimental concoction on himself and washing it down with water from the cooler. He soon begins to act like a 20-year-old and spends the day out on the town with his boss's secretary, Lois Laurel (Marilyn Monroe).  More people drink the magic potion turning young and more confusion ,…… the  parting adage is "you're old only when you forget you're young."

Monkeys have been trained to do various acts and many times we see them on streets chained forced to do some tough acts – through rigorous training – and reading this report, it is clear that it is through cruel acts that they are forced to do many works aping humans !

MailOnline reports that chained-up monkeys in south-east Asia could be picking the coconuts used to make the various trendy brands of water and oil sold in health food stores and supermarkets across the world.Baby monkeys are stolen away from their mothers, who are often shot by hunters, and sent to special schools where they are taught to pick as many as 1,000 coconuts a day, says the report.  Many of the coconut-based products, which have become the must-have for healthy eaters and celebrities alike, are sourced from Thailand where the majority of coconuts are picked by these cruelly-treated animals, reports claim.Several major brands that MailOnline investigated source their products from Thailand, as well as the south-east Asian nations of Indonesia and the Philippines.

These coconut oils and waters have been espoused by several celebrities who blog about their health benefits and use them as nutritious alternatives in their 'free-from' bakes.And nearly every supermarket or grocery store now features coconut water, making the whole industry worth around a billion pounds.But as demand grows, so does the abuse of macaque monkeys who suffer 'serious psychological damage' as a result of being chained up 24-hours-a-day !!

Animal charity Wild Futures has told MailOnline that chaining the animals and forcing them to do menial tasks all day long damages their mental state.  More cruel because the little ones are abducted from their mothers as babies, and taken to special schools  where they are chained up and trained to pick coconuts.  Many coconut water companies source their product south-east Asian countries like Indonesia, where 18m tonnes of coconuts are harvested every year, and Thailand, which produces just over one million tonnes annually.It is unknown how many of the coconuts used to make the products are picked by monkeys.

The  Bangkok Post claims that if the drink sourced from Thailand, the coconuts were 'most likely' picked by monkeys.Some monkeys are known to work from 8am to 5pm and only stop for a short break on rainy days and Sundays.Monkeys are taught to spin the coconut with both hands and feet to dislodge the coconut quickly.  The monkey's handler hold the rope which is tied to a chain around its neck, as it climbs the tree and throws coconuts down.Once it has emptied the tree, the monkey's handler yanks the chain tied around the its neck to make it climb back down.  When they are not working, their owners place a muzzle on their faces and shackle them to a tree stump or a shed - restricting their movement and interaction with other monkeys.

These monkeys are shown off to tourists as amusing spectacles by their owners who claim the animals enjoy climbing and picking fruit.But chaining them up the socially-intelligent creatures, and forcing them to carry out menial tasks, causes 'lasting psychological damage', Claire Turnbull of the Wild Futures monkey sanctuary told MailOnline. The First Monkey School in SuratThani, Thailand, describes how it turns wild monkeys into coconut-harvesting employees on its website.It says the monkey should be comfortable in its surroundings, even though the images and video on the website show the animal chained up.

The monkeys are first taught how to rotate coconuts - which helps loosen them from trees.A trainer starts by turning the coconut which has been placed on a pole and soon, the monkey will become 'curious' and want to copy them.Once it has learned how to rotate the coconut with its hands and feet, the trainer will simulate a real situation by hanging it from a bamboo rod decorated with some coconut leaves.The website says the monkey 'will never climb into a coconut tree without a line' - which is tethered around its neck - so it must learn to free itself should that line become stuck.This is method takes between three and six months to teach and costs £108.Some monkeys then qualify for 'secondary school' where they are taught to pick coconuts and put them in a bag, which they will carry to any place the owner wants.This takes another six months and costs the owner £450.The highest level of education offered in this establishment is called 'high school', where they teach the monkey to do 'practically everything the owner wants'.

Activists claim that : 'By keeping them socially isolated, on chains or in small cages, monkeys can develop a host of abnormal behaviours which range from "extreme submission" to self-harming behaviour.'As they mature, primates naturally become aggressive. In order to keep them submissive, primates are typically subjected to abusive training methods which make them anxious and fearful.

Humans and their cruel methods … !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

5^th Oct 2015.