Sir Paul McCartney to Starbucks: ‘Don’t Let Me Down’—Lose Vegan Milk Surcharge!

For Immediate Release:
March 30, 2022

Contact:
Moira Colley 202-483-7382

Ahead of his upcoming tour stop in Seattle, where Starbucks is based, Sir Paul McCartney is asking the company to end its surcharge on plant-based milks. In a just-sent letter, the longtime PETA ally urges CEO Kevin Johnson to leave a parting gift for cows and the planet by arranging to end the chain’s vegan milk upcharge before he retires on April 4.

“My friends at PETA are campaigning for this,” McCartney writes. “I sincerely hope that for the future of the planet and animal welfare you are able to implement this policy.”

PETA notes that, unlike Johnson, cows in the dairy industry don’t get a happy retirement. Instead, they’re repeatedly and forcibly impregnated—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 while Johnson is enjoying the twilight of his life, Starbucks will be fueling the climate catastrophe that will imperil future generations’ chance to do the same, as cow’s milk is Starbucks’ biggest contributor to its carbon footprint.

Sir Paul points out that numerous chains (including Philz Coffee, Panera Bread, and Pret A Manger) offer dairy-free milk at no extra charge—and that even Starbucks in the U.K. recently dropped its vegan milk surcharge.

McCartney’s full letter is available upon request. 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.