Happening Now: PETA Supporters Encased in Concrete Shut Down Local Starbucks

For Immediate Release:
August 18, 2022

Contact:
Nicole Meyer 202-483-7382

PETA supporters have encased their feet in blocks of concrete and are blocking the driveway and drive-through at the Starbucks store at 3005 West End Ave. while wearing shirts emblazoned with messages such as “Not Your Mom, Not Your Milk.” The action is the latest salvo in the campaign—backed by Sir Paul McCartney and Succession star James Cromwell—calling on Starbucks to stop penalizing people who are concerned for cows, the environment, and their own health by charging extra for the plant-based milks it already agrees are better for the planet. The protest is being livestreamed on Facebook here.

“Starbucks’ punitive price hike on vegan milks harms cows, the planet, and customers who are lactose-intolerant—many of whom are people of color,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “PETA has appealed to Starbucks to stop profiting from the plant-based milk upcharge, but so far, greed continues to define the company’s position.”

PETA supporters—including Cromwell—have superglued themselves to counters at Starbucks locations at the company’s Seattle headquarters, in New York’s Times Square, and in Chicago to protest the upcharge. McCartney has written to former and current Starbucks CEOs, asking them to drop the upcharge. Starbucks itself points out that the dairy industry is a top producer of the greenhouse gases that contribute to the climate catastrophe and encourages customers to choose plant-based milks—while continuing to charge more for them.

Cows used for dairy are forcibly inseminated (raped)—workers insert an arm into the cow’s rectum and a metal rod to deliver semen into her vagina—and their beloved calves are torn away from them so that the milk meant to nourish their babies can be used by humans. Once their bodies wear out after repeated pregnancies, they’re sent to slaughter.

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.