Conservationists, NGO’s and PETA have found that captive civets are kept in the most horrific conditions. The animals regularly display abnormal behavior such as relentless pacing up and down in cages as well as fighting with their own kind. Many are starved of nutrition and tens of thousands of civets kept in such dreaded conditions result in high mortality rates for the animal.
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While the Luwak went from a wild to a captive species, the myth that Kopi Luwak was still an exotic coffee was being peddled to westerners worldwide. Trapped Kopi Luwak is not the same as that made from the poop of a wild civet. The stress and conditions of the captivity seems to have a negative impact on the poop which people soon found wasn’t as flavorful as wild Kopi Luwak. Sadly the trade soon became a fraudulent one.
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In a boost to prevent the matter of trapped civets escalating, scientists soon devised a test to differentiate between authentic Kopi Luwak from wild civets and that of trapped animals. The chemical signature for 100% wild civet voided kopi luwak turned out to be levels of citric acid in the poop that revealed if it was a captive or wild animal.
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What most people should know is that almost 70% of kopi Luwak comes from captive animals. In fact several Indonesian businessmen have also tried peddling regular coffee under the brand of Kopi Luwak, so one has to be exceptionally careful when purchasing kopi Luwak. The biggest reason why captive animals aren’t able to produce high quality poop is simply because the cherries are picked by humans who definitely have no civet instincts to know what the best or juiciest fruit for a civet.
Instead of berries from bushes and trees they are made to eat berries from a bowl. Unripe fruit is one of the main reasons that causes the death of civets in Indonesia. However, the civet is yet to be declared an endangered species and is labeled only as a vulnerable animal.
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