Starbucks HQ Sit-Ins Still Going Strong, One Month On

For Immediate Release:
March 1, 2022

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

Because Starbucks agrees that animal-friendly vegan milks are better for the planet yet continues to charge extra for them, PETA and Animal Rights Initiative (ARI) supporters have descended on the café at Starbucks headquarters every single day since January 23—and they don’t plan to stop until the company agrees to end the vegan milk upcharge that punishes environmentally conscious consumers and cows and their calves.

The protesters can be found every day from 11 a.m. to 12 noon at 2401 Utah Ave. S.

“Starbucks’ vegan upcharge is milking customers who choose vegan lattes for the sake of cows, the planet, or their health,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA has mooved into Starbucks with a vow to remain until it agrees to price Earth- and animal-friendly options at or below the price of cow’s milk.”

In addition to being a major producer of the greenhouse gases that contribute to the climate catastrophe, the dairy industry is responsible for immense animal suffering. Cows used for dairy are artificially inseminated—workers insert an arm into the animals’ rectum and a metal rod to deliver semen into their vagina—and then sent to slaughter when their bodies give out. And because many people of color—including 75% of African Americans and American Indians and 90% of Asian Americans—are lactose intolerant, Starbucks’ surcharge also perpetuates dietary racism.

In recent months, PETA has held sit-ins at Starbucks locations across the country, confronted its shareholders with the specter of a “dead calf” in a Starbucks cup, and hijacked its customers by giving away free cold brews and lattes with oat milk outside its cafés. In December, members of PETA and ARI delivered bags of coal to the home of Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson—whose wife responded by calling the police on the peaceful protesters—to call on him to stop being “ho ho horrible” to animals.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat or abuse in any other way”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.