PETA calls on J&J to end sales training demonstration

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is calling on Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) to cancel a sales training demonstration involving pigs.

The animal rights organization has sent a letter to the New Brunswick, N.J.-based company, urging it to put a stop to the use of animals for sales training and instead use non-animal methods such as a simulation.

PETA has long been involved with medical device companies, often buying up small stakes to get in on shareholder meetings and submit resolutions.

“No salesperson needs to watch a pig bleed out and die to see how a medical device works,” PETA senior VP of laboratory investigations Kathy Guillermo said in prepared remarks. “A sophisticated human-anatomy simulator – or even a simple video of a human surgery – would teach them all they need to know without harming animals.”

In 2005, PETA brought its “Give the Animals 5” initiative to J&J, looking to encourage companies to replace 5 “crude and cruel” animal experiments with scientifically validated non-animal methods. J&J petitioned the SEC to keep the measure off the books entirely, but was shot down.

After meeting with J&J leadership, PETA withdrew the resolution and agreed to work together to reduce animal use in the company, according to a PETA statement.

Those talks went south over the company’s use of animals in sales training demonstrations. In 2011, the group pushed a resolution to reduce animal use, especially during sales training. The parties went back and forth, with J&J arguing that it has written guidelines to ensure that the animals are treated humanely.

The SEC sided with PETA and the resolution made it into the books, garnering 4.7% of the shareholder vote. The animal rights organization filed a similar resolution in 2012, winning 4.4% of the vote.

J&J’s next sales training class is reportedly scheduled for Oct. 27 in Cincinnati.

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