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SHARK Newsletter |  |
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Dear Friends, I had a strange and interesting conversation today with a senior public relations person at Starbucks. I was questioning how Starbucks could almost simultaneously send out two very different and apparently opposing E-mails to people. One letter claims that Starbucks asked their local marketing people to stop affiliating with rodeos, while the other letter claims that it is acceptable for Starbucks to affiliate with rodeos. You can read the statements that Starbucks is continuing to send out simultaneously here. The answer is that Starbucks has asked their local marketers to stop affiliating with rodeos, but that those same marketers may refuse! In other words, from our perspective, this is not a policy but literally a deniable request. This ploy is obviously designed to take the pressure off by making people thing that Starbucks is doing the right thing when it is not.
This doublespeak tactic does, however, accomplish one thing. It tells us loudly and clearly that you are having an effect with your calls and local demonstrations (those of you who are having local demonstrations, that is). My guess is that somewhere in the bowels of Starbucks there is a closely guarded number that signals the company’s tipping point. Each call or email or faxed or mailed letter is a point toward that number. Each protest is a few points toward that number. Seattle Starbucks shareholder Barbara Birnbaum scored a bunch of points when she confronted Starbucks executives with the rodeo issue at the February shareholders meeting. (You can hear an audio clip of that exchange on BuckStarbucks.com)
No matter how many times you have called or written Starbucks, it is important that you contact the company again to question them regarding their current position. Local protests wherever you are, including out of the US, are vital. Protest signs put together by In Defense of Animals in cooperation with SHARK are now available upon request.
While it may appear that Starbucks is in control of the rodeo issue, it is in fact in the hands of the animal protection movement. When we have educated enough Starbucks customers and brought enough heat from this issue, the company will terminate its relationship with rodeos. If we do not do what has to be done, Starbucks will leave the status quo. It's just that simple. Please take a good, hard look at the pictures of rodeo victims here, and then decide how it’s going to be, because the future is in the hands of each and every one of us.
Please, call and/or write
Starbucks right now, and
plan a demonstration for tomorrow. The Tiger Truck
will be in Portland on March 7 & 8, and Seattle
starting on March 10.
This calf has been through enough that he knows leaving the chute means being jerked by the neck and slammed to the ground. This rodeo thug is about to send an extremely painful shot of electricity to this calf's face.
Running calves never know what hit them.
This screaming calf is about to be slammed to the ground for the second time in a matter of seconds.
As this steer is being dragged through the mud during a 'steer roping' event, note the bleeding sores on his body from previous trauma. Rodeo thugs claim repeatedly that they "treat the animals better than the cowboys."
Please tell Starbucks to get out of subsidizing cruelty.
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