Shareholder Campaigns

Over the years, many members have given stock to PETA as a donation or because of specific animal cruelty issues. On occasion, PETA has also purchased shares in companies where the inhumane treatment of animals has been brought to our attention. As partial owners of a publicly traded company, shareholders are entitled to bring proposals, or resolutions, to a vote as part of a company’s annual meeting process.

With the support of our members, PETA has filed shareholder resolutions with dozens of companies, including the following chemical and pharmaceutical giants:

PETA’s Give the Animals 5 resolution calls on companies to:

• Commit specifically to using only non-animal methods for assessing skin corrosion, skin irritation, skin absorption, phototoxicity and pyrogenicity.
• Confirm that it is in the Company’s best interest to commit to replacing animal-based tests with non-animal methods.
• Petition the relevant regulatory agencies requiring safety testing for the Company’s products to accept as total replacements for animal-based methods, those approved non-animal methods described above, along with any others currently used and accepted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and other developed countries.

Several companies sought the government’s permission to exclude PETA’s resolution from their annual meeting materials, but in all but one instance, the government ruled in PETA's favor. Other companies offered to enter into an ongoing, constructive dialogue with PETA as an alternative to having our resolution presented at their annual meetings. Thus, shareholder resolutions represent a powerful and credible tactic to educate company management, boards, and investors about important issues, leading to change over the long-term.