The organization maintains this type of coffee is linked to horrible animal cruelty

Oct 4, 2013 16:16 GMT  ·  By

Animal rights activists working with PETA have sent a letter to Jeff Bezos, the current president and CEO of Amazon.com, and demanded that the website quit offering customers civet coffee, otherwise known as kopi luwak.

In their letter, the activists explain that this coffee, which is made from partly digested beans excreted by a species of fairly small mammals, is linked to horrible animal cruelty.

“Kopi luwak, which sells for hundreds of dollars per pound, is made from the beans of coffee berries that have been eaten and excreted by Asian palm civets, but a PETA Asia investigator who visited civet coffee farms in Indonesia and the Philippines documented that civets were confined to tiny cages and suffered from malnutrition and skin infections,” PETA argues.

Furthermore, “Undercover video footage shows how the civets incessantly pace or spin – indications that they're going insane from confinement and depression.”

Apart from asking Jeff Bezos to have Amazon.com quit marketing this type of coffee, the organization is asking that people stop drinking it.

“The idea that civets are factory-farmed in tiny crates should leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth, including Mr. Bezos,” PETA President Ingrid E. Newkirk said in a statement.