Animal Protectionists Call on Coffee Giant to Buck Rodeo Sponsorship
Support of Brutal Sport Gives Company “Black Eye,” Says Groups

Tulsa, Okla.— Chicago-based Showing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) will greet patrons of Tulsa’s Starbucks with its “Tiger Truck” to call on the company to end its sponsorship of rodeos. Along with Tulsa residents and members of In Defense of Animals (IDA), SHARK will convene to urge the coffee giant take immediate action:

When: Monday, December 19, 6:00 p.m.
Where: Tulsa area Starbucks, call for exact location

Starbucks Coffee has been sponsoring rodeos around the country and then denying its involvement to concerned consumers, even though the company’s ads clearly show their support for this violent “sport” in which animals are commonly injured and killed.

The Tiger Truck features three 100-inch movie screens and one 60-inch screen viewable on all four sides of the box, with digital signboards with additional information. The images are brutally honest, and display the facts about animal abuse in a visual form that passersby cannot ignore, and rodeo supporters cannot deny.

Rodeos are violent events. In the notorious calf-roping event, cowboys rope and tie up three-to-four-month-old calves in the shortest amount of time. Handlers prod them, twist and yank their tails, and then release calves from pens. The frightened animals run from the gate at speeds approaching thirty miles per hour, are then lassoed by the neck, often snapping their heads back as they come to an abrupt stop. Sometimes they are jerked over backwards in what rodeo people call a “jerkdown.” They are then slammed to the ground and have their legs tied. 

Big prize purses supplied by unethical corporate sponsors and small, if any, fines for weak, vaguely defined rules keep rodeos in business. “Starbucks, with their green-aproned employees, prides itself on being a socially and environmentally conscious company,” said SHARK President Steve Hindi. “But when their customers realize that they are subsidizing calves being taunted, hit, and shocked, before being chased by contestants on horseback, roped, and slammed to the ground, they will get their java jolt elsewhere. Starbucks is a model of unethical and irresponsible corporate conduct.”

For more information, please visit www.BuckStarbucks.com.