Activist investor Carl Icahn has launched an unusual battle within the McDonald’s board to ask the fast-food chain to demand an end to the practice of keeping pregnant sows confined to small crates from its supply chain. In a statement on Sunday, McDonald’s said Icahn had obtained two supervisors from the board of directors to assess “a specific matter regarding pork processing.” Icahn asked McDonald’s to require all of its U.S. pork suppliers to keep animals out of cages by setting specific deadlines.
All while respecting previously established agreements. McDonald’s promised as early as 2012 to phase out the use of so-called ‘gestation stalls’ for pregnant sows in its US pork supply chain over a 10-year period. By the end of 2022, the company would expect to source 85 to 90 percent of its U.S. pork from sows no longer confined to gestation cages, completely eliminating this supply by the end of 2024, he said. the fast-food chain. But the Humane Society of the United States, a US NGO that fights for animal rights, has questioned the company’s commitment.
In a shareholder proposal filed in November, the group said it looked like McDonald’s was planning to reduce the time suppliers lock up pregnant sows in stables, rather than ending the practice altogether. “McDonald’s in 2012, working with Carl Icahn and the Humane Society of the US, made a commitment to eliminate gestation cages,” said Josh Balk, vice president of farm animal protection at the Humane Society. “Instead, they are allowing pig producers to confine pregnant pigs again for six of their 16 weeks of pregnancy.”