This year, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) filed shareholders' resolutions with Merck, Eli Lilly, Johnson & Johnson, Amgen, Schering-Plough, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Abbott in an attempt to get the firms to stop using five common animal tests. The group also has a resolution pending with Wyeth regarding its treatment of the pregnant mares that produce urine used in making the estrogen-replacement drug, Premarin.
Such resolutions don't stand much chance of passing. At press time, the shareholders at Abbott, Merck, Lilly, and Wyeth had voted against the resolutions, with the Bristol-Myers and Amgen votes still pending. The resolutions, like most others filed by advocacy groups, also failed to win the 3% of the vote that would have been needed to bring the issue back at next year's annual meetings. Last year, PETA filed an animal-testing resolution with Wyeth and secured just 2.3% of the shareholders' votes.
Nonetheless, such ...
