 About activist investors, the storyline is often a Bill Ackman or a car icon or a Nelson Pelt throwing around millions if not billions of dollars to change a company from the inside. Well now, the Humane Society is getting into the activist game. Yes, that Humane Society. And they're doing so with just a $2,000 investment. So in this case, the Humane Society bought up $2,000 worth of shares in Coach in hopes of getting the company to stop selling real animal fur. If you're wondering, that's about a 0.0000002% stake in Coach. But according to a 1998 SEC rule, $2,000 is the minimum amount needed to file a proxy campaign in a publicly traded company. So using activist investment as a means of social change among corporations isn't a new concept. I spoke with Matthew Kprescott, who is the Senior Director of Corporate Policy for the Humane Society, and he told me about another one of their proxy campaigns. In 2013, they submitted a similar shareholder proposal to get Tyson foods to stop using gestation crates in pig farming. Now those are meadow enclosures for pregnant pigs to keep them immobile so they don't fight. But animal warfare activists say that the use of these crates constitutes animal abuse. The proposal went on to gain the backing of two major proxy advisory firms. Before it could go to a vote, Tyson agreed to urge its pig farmers to increase the size of the crates, a success for the Humane Society. And it isn't just the Humane Society in the game. When Canada Goose went public in March, PETA was one of their first investors with the sole purpose of challenging the retailer's use of animal fur. But it's not always as simple as relying on the democratic powers of shareholder when it comes down to the vote. Depending on the company's structure, a share isn't always guaranteed a vote in the annual meeting. For Canada Goose, for instance, 68% of its voting rights is controlled by Bain Capital. So this means that PETA will have to get chummy with some fat cats. And not the cute fluffy kind.