After taking hits from a national anti-cruelty campaign spearheaded by Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK), coffee conglomerate Starbucks has agreed to create a corporate policy that will end their direct financial support for rodeos. This comes as great news to animal advocates and animal protection groups everywhere. IDA is proud to have played a supportive role in the struggle to hold Starbucks accountable for promoting animal cruelty. As part of our joint campaign, IDA and SHARK co-coordinated several successful San Francisco Bay Area and Portland, Oregon demonstrations against the coffee giant's rodeo support. We would like to congratulate SHARK and everyone involved in the campaign on a job well done.

While agreeing to no longer take out ads that financially support rodeos, Starbucks still plans to give away free beverages at these inhumane events. This decision lends their tacit support to the rodeo, and amounts to a de facto form of advertising that will continue to taint their self-styled image as a responsible corporation. Nonetheless, because Starbucks has agreed to withdraw direct financial support from the rodeo industry, SHARK will discontinue actively campaigning against the company. The group has agreed to recall from the campaign trail its "Tiger" video truck, which is equipped with four large-screen TVs. SHARK has used the truck to bring graphic rodeo video footage to Starbucks shops in fifteen different metropolitan areas between Chicago and Seattle over the past four months.

Because Starbucks continues to condone animal cruelty by giving rodeo spectators free coffee, SHARK will maintain its anti-Starbucks website, www.buckstarbucks.com, and discourage compassionate people from buying their coffee for as long as the company associates itself with the rodeo. "We think Starbucks' customers deserve to know what Starbucks considers acceptable treatment of animals," explains SHARK president Steve Hindi. "A truly ethical and socially responsible company would not be involved with rodeos or any form of animal abuse in any way whatsoever."

What You Can Do
Please write a short, polite letter to Starbucks thanking them for no longer financially supporting rodeos and urging them not to donate its products to rodeos.

Howard Schultz, Chairman
Jim Donald, CEO
Starbucks Corp.
P.O. Box 3717
Seattle, WA 98124
Tel: (206) 447-1575
Fax: (206) 447-0828
Email webform: click here