PETA Suit Against Merck Over Shareholder Proposal Offers New Twists

[GKirk]

http://seekingalpha.com/article/265312-peta-suit-against-merck-over-shareholder-proposal-offers-new-twists?source=yahoo

Battles between animal-rights groups and drugmakers is nothing new, but the latest spat between the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, and Merck (MRK) has a couple of interesting twists. To be specific, PETA late last week filed a lawsuit against Merck for refusing to include a shareholder proposal that would require the drugmaker to disclose its use of animal testing in all research.

Merck, however, refused to include the proposal in its proxy, prompting PETA to sue. This marks the first time that the animal-rights group has actually gone to court because a company denied a request to include a shareholder resolution in a proxy. But why exactly did Merck deny the proposal? The drugmaker contends PETA failed to prove shareholder status, even though PETA has owned Merck stock for more than two years and filed its resolution about one month before the necessary deadline. And PETA also maintains that its holdings meet the $2,000 threshold or 1 percent of Merck shares.

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My thoughts are that Merck just wants PETA to spend some of it's money.