A file photo showing monkeys ride on the back of a pickup truck loaded with coconuts after they collecting them from a plantation in Chumphon province, southern Thailand. Thailand's coconut-picking monkeys, long a popular tourist attraction, have become a sensitive trade issue as British activists claim the animals are abused and push for a boycott of the nation's coconut products. - AP
BANGKOK, July 7 (Xinhua): Thailand's Ministry of Commerce dismissed on Tuesday claims by Western animal rights group that monkeys trained to pick coconuts were maltreated.
The ministry is ready to invite foreign diplomats to visit coconut plantations and witness for themselves how monkeys pick coconuts, said Boonyarit Kalayanamit, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, "I guarantee that diplomats will realise that this is not animal cruelty as claimed by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA)."
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