PETA Wins Skirmish With Wal-Mart
Last updated Thursday, March 30, 2006 9:10 PM CST in Business
By Anita French
The Morning News • afrench@nwaonline.net
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals scored a victory over Wal-Mart Stores Inc. when the federal Securities Exchange Commission ruled last week that Wal-Mart has to put PETA's shareholder proposal up for a vote at this year's stockholders meeting in June.
It may be short-lived victory, however, as Wal-Mart shareholder proposals have a history of going down in defeat -- something even a PETA official acknowledged.
"It probably won't pass, but what we're most concerned with is that (Wal-Mart) shareholders hear about the cruel ways in which Wal-Mart chickens are treated and the humane alternative to that process," said PETA spokesman Matt Prescott.
Virginia-based PETA, which owns 66 shares of Wal-Mart stock, submitted a proposal in January asking that Wal-Mart require its suppliers switch to the form of animal slaughter called "controlled-atmosphere killing," or CAK.
Wal-Mart responded by sending a letter to the SEC, asking that the company be allowed not to include the PETA proposal because it was "materially vague, false and misleading," Wal-Mart said in a letter.
The SEC ruled against Wal-Mart, saying it was "unable to concur" with the company's arguments on why the PETA proposal should be excluded.
Wal-Mart spokesman Marty Heires said the company could not respond at this time,
"We have replied to PETA, and there will be a response in our proxy," Heires said.
Wal-Mart said in its letter to the SEC that the company would mail out its shareholder proxies April 14.
At last year's Wal-Mart shareholders meeting, all eight shareholder proposals were voted down after the company recommended they be rejected.
Prescott said PETA has been pushing Wal-Mart for years to support CAK, in which animals are put into a sealed chamber and gassed -- a process PETA said is painless.
The alternative is electric stunning of the animals, which PETA says research has shown is cruel and painful.
The CAK system has been approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, according to PETA.
A similar proposal by PETA was rejected at the Feb. 3 shareholders meeting of Springdale-based Tyson Foods Inc. Wal-Mart accounted for 13 percent of Tyson Foods' sales in 2005, making it Tyson Foods' largest customer.
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