The growing international demand for Kopi Luwak, the world’s most expensive coffee, is driving an inhumane and illegal trade of civets. The coffee was originally produced by collecting the coffee cherry pips from the feces of wild civets who would scour coffee farms, eating the best coffee cherries. The unique origins and the rarity of the coffee justified prices as high as $30-$100 per cup. However, there was not enough supply of this foraged coffee to meet the flourishing global demand for kopi luwak. This has spurred suppliers to create civet farms in order to produce an adequate supply of coffee. Civets, naturally solitary omnivores, are being poached from the wild and kept in small, barren cages. The captive civets are fed exclusively coffee cherries, which causes them to be malnourished and fall ill. They also show signs of severe stress, pacing in their cages and gnawing on the bars. The stressed and sick civets frequently die due to these conditions.
Wildlife Alliance has rescued over 200 civets from the illegal wildlife trade, however, our rangers have noticed that civets are disappearing at increasing rates from the wild. Make a gift to our Help Save Civets from the Cruel Coffee Trade project on GlobalGiving to help our rangers dissemble the civet trade network and to rescue captive civets. There are only 20 days left to raise the last $585 we need to reach our goal!
[…] via Only 20 Days Left to Save Civets from the Cruel Coffee Trade […]
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