Kinship Circle | Letter Campaigns

4/29/09: Coke & Rodeo – Official Soft Drink Of Cruelty?

SOURCE OF INFORMATION / BACKGROUND

•  Coca Cola Sponsors The Rodeo
•  VIDEO: Coca Cola Animal Cruelty
•  Coca-Cola's History of Lying About Rodeo
•  Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK)

The Coca-Cola Company denies sponsoring rodeo, but this photo tells the truth. Coke Cruelty

Does The Coca-Cola Company sponsor rodeos? Coca-Cola cares about the welfare of animals and supports their proper treatment. That is why the Company and our U.S. bottling partners will not sponsor events or attractions that feature animals unless the event organizers have policies and procedures in place to support the humane treatment of animals and provide ready access to quality veterinary care to protect the animals' health and safety.

CONTACT INFORMATION + SAMPLE LETTER

CONTACT INFORMATION • Print/Send This Letter

Muhtar Kent, Chairman and CEO
The Coca-Cola Company
P.O. Box 1734; Atlanta, GA 30301
ph: 800-438-2653 (GET-COKE)
web form:
thecoca- colacompany.com/contactus/cokefeedback/index.html
Coca-Cola's Corporate Responsibility Review:
crreview@na.ko.com

The Coca-Cola Company Customer Service
coca-cola.support@na.ko.com

Coca-Cola Company Board of Directors
c/o Office of the Secretary
The Coca-Cola Company
P.O. Box 1734; Atlanta, Georgia 30301

Industry and Consumer Affairs
The Coca-Cola Company
DUN 500
P.O. Box 1734
Atlanta, GA 30301

EthicsLine, for The Coca–Cola Company's
Ethics & Compliance Office
Coca-Cola Company's Code of Business Conduct, Workplace
Rights Policy or other ethics and compliance matters.
ph: 1-866-790-5579
Strategic Security KO Operations Center in United States:
koc@na.ko.com
SOURCE: www.KOethics.com

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CONTACTS (FROM ABOVE) FOR WHOM EMAILS WERE FOUND:
crreview@na.ko.com, coca- cola.support@na.ko.com, koc@na.ko.com

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SAMPLE LETTER • Print/Send This Letter

Dear Coca-Cola Company:

I admire Coca-Cola's involvement in areas such as environment, civic action, and scholarship programs. That's all the more reason I'm confused by the company's lax ethics on animal welfare.

Specifically, your statement about rodeo sponsorship claims Coca-Cola Company and its U.S. bottling partners "will not sponsor events or attractions that feature animals unless event organizers have policies and procedures in place to support humane treatment and provide...quality veterinary care to protect the animals' health and safety."

Animals in rodeos do not receive "humane treatment" or "quality veterinary care." In fact, rodeo handlers bully animals with electric prods, straps, spurs and tail twisting. On-site veterinarians (if present) cannot intervene once a deliberately agitated animal is released into the ring.

"Without torture, there can be no rodeo," says Peggy W. Larson, DVM, MS, JD, a former bareback bronco rider who explains that horses and bulls buck wildly only because they are in pain from rigid flank straps and spurring.

Why are Coca-Cola banners — apparently arranged between your bottling partners and rodeo organizers — prominently displayed at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo? Coca-Cola's logo has popped up in rodeos throughout North America. At the 2005 Cheyenne, Wyoming rodeo, blood from a horse's hoof wound was even spattered around a Coca-Cola sign beside an entry chute.

Since actions speak more convincingly than words, I urge Coca-Cola to cut all ties to the rodeo. Please ask your bottlers to ensure banners and other materials are removed from rodeo events.

Rodeo organizers allege compliance with animal welfare rules, but documented images tell a different story. A scared calf flees into the ring at high speeds so the "cowboy" can neck-choke him into the ground. He typically body-slams the young animal again for theatrical effect.

In bucking events, the horses' intestines and groins are cinched so tightly they lurch in response to pain. Animals who won't buck may be shocked with electric prods. Many careen into fences, posts or chutes.

Animal welfare groups worldwide denounce rodeo's trail of busted bones, cracked skulls and severed spines. Please ask your bottlers — and any other entities related to Coca-Cola — to comply with the company's claim to "care about the welfare of animals."

Sincerely,

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DISCLAIMER: The information in these materials is verified with the original source. Kinship Circle does not assume responsibility for the accuracy of the information or for the consequences of its use. Nothing on this website is intended to encourage illegal action in whatever country you are reading it in. Kinship Circle does not engage in, nor support, any form of harassment or unlawful activity. Nothing in this action alert serves to promote such conduct.

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