Billionaire Carl Icahn has stepped up his battle with McDonald’s over the safety of the pigs used in the famous chain.
Icahn, who has a reputation for corporate change that has made him a legend in the famous Wall Street financial district, wants to put two people on the McDonald’s board.
Icahn owns only 200 shares in McDonald’s, but was reportedly pushed into this position by his animal welfare daughter, giving him a push to act on the change.
McDonald’s says it has led the way in improving animal welfare standards. The battle centers on allegations that pregnant female pigs are kept in small crates, a practice Icahn called “abominable.”
McDonald’s says McDonald’s has failed to deliver on a promise it made a decade ago to stop buying pork from suppliers that use tote crates — special containers in which pregnant pigs are kept for life so they can’t move.
Icahn required all pork suppliers to McDonald’s in the United States to switch to pork from females that were not placed in these boxes, according to a timetable he had laid out.
The company said in a statement that some progress had already been made with respect to suppliers of pork. It has pledged to supply 85-90% of US pork from non-box carrier pigs by the end of the year and to switch entirely to “box-free” pork by the end of 2024.
A statement from the fast-food giant said the US billionaire had proposed that Leslie Samuelrich and Maisie Ganzler run for election at the 2022 annual meeting.
Activist investors like Icahn, said to be a model for Gordon Gekko in the 1987 film Wall Street, usually focus on companies they think need to be restructured.
But he told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month that his move to do something at McDonald’s stemmed from his daughter, an animal lover who worked for an animal welfare group.
McDonald’s said, in a statement, “It will continue to work to improve standards in this area, but some of Icahn’s requests were unreasonable.”
picture released, Getty Images
Billionaire Icahn says his move to do something at McDonald’s stems from his daughter, an animal rights advocate
The restaurant chain also indicated that Icahn owned most of the shares in the “Viscas” company, a company that manufactures and supplies packaging materials for the pork and poultry industry.
She added that he had “not publicly asked” Ficasas to make similar pledges, and Icahn did not immediately respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
According to Forbes, Icahn has a net worth of $16.8 billion, as the owner and founder of Icahn Enterprises.
He previously spent several months advising former US President Donald Trump on regulatory reform, before stepping down amid controversy.
“Mr Icahn’s profile means that McDonald’s feels the need to respond even though his stake is very small,” Mac Tenn, a professor at Singapore Business School, told the BBC.
“McDonald’s appears to have been somewhat slow to deliver on this specific commitment that was made 10 years ago. Only now is it accelerating fulfillment when activists highlight it publicly,” Tin continued.
McDonald’s said it accounts for only about 1 percent of its pork production in the United States, and that it does not own any pregnant female pigs or produce or package pork in the country.
She said the board would evaluate ICAN candidates “just as any other candidate would.”