Starbucks target of global campaign

In the last year, we’ve made huge progress for egg-laying hens. With your help, we secured cage-free commitments from
ALL of New Zealand’s major supermarkets: Countdown, New World, PAK’nSAVE, Fresh Collective, Four Square, FreshChoice, SuperValue, On The Spot, Gilmours, Trents Wholesale, Write Price, Shopwrite and Raeward Fresh will all be going cage-free for whole eggs in the future. This means over 1.5 million hens will no longer be in cages, thanks to you. Together, we are ending the cage-age for hens in New Zealand.

But some companies are yet to listen to their customers and make a commitment. Starbucks coffee chain is one of these! So far, Starbucks won’t engage on this important issue of animal welfare.

Starbucks is being urged to go cage-egg free worldwide by over 55 major international animal protection organisations as part of a global campaign launching today. The coordinated campaign asking for Starbucks to use exclusively cage-free eggs launches out of Europe at the 2018 summit of the Open Wing Alliance, of which SAFE is a member organisation. SAFE staff are pleased to be representing caring Kiwis in participating in the first protest against Starbucks in Prague. 

In meetings with SAFE, Restaurant Brands, (the owners of Starbucks) were dismissive, dodging the issue. But they have several cabinet items containing eggs.

We’ve asked on your behalf that Restaurant Brands and Starbucks New Zealand make meaningful changes for hens –  but so far they’re ignoring us. They’re not listening to all the Kiwis who care about hens, and they are holding on to cage-egg cruelty. In New Zealand, Restaurant Brands owns over 20 Starbucks café outlets around the country.

As you may know, by New Zealand law, conventional battery cages have to be removed by egg producers by 2022. However, the egg industry was set to replace these cages with equally cruel colony cages. Hens are crammed into wire cages with only a space about the size of a magazine in which to live their entire lives. Both battery and colony cages prevent hens from exercising many of their natural behaviours, including fully stretching their wings and dust bathing. We know hens deserve better and we won’t let Starbucks keep supporting these cages.

In New Zealand many café and convenience food competitors already have cage-free policy. The Coffee Club, Esquires Coffee, Columbus, Subway, Wendy’s, Burger King, McDonald’s, Hell Pizza, Burger Fuel, Pita Pit and Habitual Fix all have commitments moving them away from cage cruelty, currently covering whole eggs. In addition to whole egg policies, SAFE is in talks with many food service outlets and food manufacture brands to expand their commitment to ingredient eggs. Starbucks is lagging behind, with no policy for hen welfare on any eggs.

Together, we are changing the course of history and eliminating this type of factory farming in New Zealand.