PETA’s ‘Dead Calf’ to Protest Starbucks’ Vegan Milk Upcharge
For Immediate Release:
March 16, 2021
Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382
Tomorrow, PETA will deliver a one-two punch to Starbucks over its refusal to end its surcharge on vegan milks. Protesters will descend on the company’s headquarters with a life-size prop of a “dead calf” in a pool of blood inside a Starbucks cup while PETA representatives will attend the chain’s virtual annual meeting to point out that, while Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson acknowledged that cow’s milk is the company’s biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions, he has refused to put his money where his mouth is.
When: Wednesday, March 17, 10 a.m.
Where: Starbucks headquarters, 2401 Utah Ave. S., Seattle
“Despite its lip service to sustainability, the proof is in the pudding: Starbucks is putting profits over the planet,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA is calling on the company to stop penalizing people who care about animals and the environment by ending this surcharge immediately.”
Cows in the dairy industry are artificially inseminated—workers insert an arm into the animals’ rectum and a metal rod into the vagina—and their calves are taken from them within a day of birth. Each person who goes vegan saves the lives of nearly 200 animals every year and lowers their own carbon footprint. According to the United Nations, a global shift to vegan eating would combat the worst effects of climate change.
PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to eat”—will also hold a protest outside Starbucks’ Pike Place Market location on its 50th anniversary later this month.
When: Tuesday, March 30, 12 noon
Where: Starbucks at Pike Place Market, 1912 Pike Place, Seattle
PETA opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
