Earth Day Activism Kicks Off With PETA Members Superglued Inside Starbucks’ HQ, Arrested

For Immediate Release:
April 21, 2022

Contact:
Brooke Rossi 202-483-7382

With Earth Day (April 22) nearly here, PETA’s campaign calling on Starbucks to stop charging customers extra for the vegan milks it agrees are better for the planet kicked into high gear yesterday, when PETA supporters superglued their hands to the café counter at Starbucks’ headquarters, chanting, “Save the planet! Save the cows! Stop the vegan upcharge NOW!” After nearly two hours, they were removed by police, who say they will each be charged with two felonies. Photos and video footage of the “glue-in” are available here.

PETA’s actions are continuing all week: The group is hijacking would-be Starbucks customers by giving away free nitro cold brew mochas made with creamy oat milk—generously donated by RISE Brewing Co.—at Starbucks locations across the country, including in Denver; Portland, Oregon; and West Palm Beach, Florida.

“Starbucks’ Earth Day promotions are hot air, when the company is still charging extra for healthier, Earth- and animal-friendly vegan milks,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA will stick to Starbucks like glue until it agrees to drop the vegan upcharge.”

PETA and Animal Rights Initiative supporters have held daily sit-ins at Starbucks’ headquarters every day since January to point out that the dairy industry is a major producer of the greenhouse gases that contribute to the climate catastrophe and 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.

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