What the Rescue of an Orphaned Civet Kitten Has to Do With the World’s Most Expensive Coffee

Palm civets, small mammals living in South and Southeast Asia, have come to face a truly unusual threat. Yes, they are in danger due to the kinds of illegal practices that unbelievably many species have to confront – like being hunted for meat or sold for profit as pets – but, as if that was not enough, those animals are also used to produce Kopi Luwak, the so-called “civet coffee.” This expensive beverage includes part-digested coffee cherries eaten and defecated by palm civets. The rapid rise in production of Kopi Luwak caused an upsurge in the number of these animals being captured from the wild, kept in cages in terrible conditions, and used for mass-production of the coffee.

Because of the many dangers awaiting those beautiful animals, orphaned baby civets are not a complete rarity. Recently, the rescue team from the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand (WFFT) Wildlife Rescue Centre saved a little civet who so young that she would have no chance of surviving on her own…

Stella was found under a tree where she was crying out, covered in ants. She’s barely a week old and has not opened her eyes yet.

The person who found little Stella cleared off the ants. Unfortunately, her mother was nowhere to be found.

The WFFT Rescue Team collected the kitten and transported her to the rescue.

Stella already started to eat well – she is being fed regularly every hour and taken care of by the rescue team.

While “civet coffee” is thought to be a luxury product and a fashionable novelty, it loses all this charm when we consider the way it is actually being made. The civets used for the production of Kopi Luwak have to live in bad conditions, are closed in small cages, and not taken care of in a proper way. Sadly, the demand for this coffee has put countless civets like little Stella in danger – begging the question, is it really worth it?

Visit the WFFT Wildlife Rescue Centre’s website and learn how to help them rescue even more animals like Stella.