ASSERTING that McDonald’s has not lived up to prior commitments on animal welfare, Carl Icahn said he plans to offer alternative candidates for the company’s board of directors.

The billionaire investor decried the treatment of pigs produced for the fast food firm’s meat, which are put in a tiny “crate for its whole life” where “it can’t move around”, he said in an interview broadcast on Bloomberg on Wednesday.

“I really do feel emotional about these animals and the unnecessary suffering.”

A long-time fighter of often-successful shareholder battles, Icahn said he worked with the Humane Society on the issue a decade ago, winning an agreement from McDonald’s that it will not buy from suppliers employing these cages in 10 years.

McDonald’s “did a little something, but never delivered,” he said, adding that he is “teed off” when he learned that the company has not followed through.

“We are probably 90% there on putting up a slate” of board candidates, he added.

“We are not going to fool around with them anymore.”

McDonald’s did not respond to a request for comment.

The chain’s website said that more than 60% of its US pork supply has “phased out the use of gestation stalls for pregnant sows”. – AFP, February 18, 2022.