Cat-Poo-Chino and Captive Wildlife: Tourist Perceptions of Balinese Kopi Luwak Agrotourism

Abstract

Kopi luwak, known as the world’s most expensive coffee, is made from coffee beans that have been partially digested by the Asian palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus). This study aims to assess how tourists perceive the inclusion of captive civets within curated Balinese kopi luwak tours by analyzing 3,364 reviews of 25 sites housing live civets, posted to the tourist review platform, TripAdvisor, between October 2011 and March 2020. Overall, reviewers concerned with animal welfare were more likely to leave a negative review. Two emergent themes, encounters with caged animals and encounters with sleeping animals, are explored through a multispecies lens. Civet displays are discussed in relation to passive and true animal encounter, animal dignity, shared suffering, and cognitive dissonance. Although caged practices persist across sites, results also indicate new forms of concealed cruelty as civets are likely sedated to enable photographic souvenirs.

Thinking with Civets: The Role of Zoos in the Decolonisation of Animal Tourism

“…As the most used species in civet coffee production and tourism, their absence is a missed opportunity for zoo education. Thus, it may be of little surprise that tourists who visit Viverrid range countries are often unaware of the civet species they are most likely to come into contact with, nor are they aware of the welfare or conservation issues associated with civet coffee production [26]. As I will now demonstrate, zoos are already enmeshed in the political and tricky intersection between animal welfare, conservation, and ethics in global animal tourism, and so responding to these issues could be seen as a moral imperative.…”

“…Rising to international fame in the early 2000s after it was featured in a series of Hollywood films and prime-time television programmes in Europe and North America [26], civet coffee's novel production method, romanticised origin story, and proclaimed rarity saw consumer demand rise exponentially [84]. Whether contemporary civet coffee is a product of authenticity, however, is debatable.…”

“…Thus, the smell, sound, and sight of other animals can cause significant psychological distress, as civets are unable to hide or increase their distance from caged neighbours. Cage-related injuries such as abrasions to paws and faces and stereotypic behaviour, including pacing and self-mutilation, are all common occurrences [26,86,90].…”

“…Alongside civet coffee's global fame has come a rise in civet coffee tourism. Most prominent on the popular tourist destination island of Bali, civet coffee tours facilitate tourists desire to learn about the coffee's unusual production process [26]. Tourists are guided through curated displays of coffee cherries, caged civets, civet faeces, and elderly Balinese women roasting coffee beans on an open fire.…”

“…For the past four years, I have been conducting a multi-sited and multi-method approach to the anthrozoological investigation, a critical analysis of contemporary human-civet relationships. This article is a qualitative literature review that has formed alongside the collection of empirical data, which is presented elsewhere in the literature (see [9,26,27]). Through thinking with civets in this essay, I first address the colonial underpinnings of zoos, their advances towards improved standards of animal welfare, and the demographics of Viverrid species housed in the zoos.…”