Activist investor Carl Icahn is taking on McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE:MCD) over their sourcing of pork, claiming he's willing to launch a proxy fight against the fast-food giant over the way its vendors are housing pregnant pregnant pigs in too-small crates.
What Happened: According to combined media reports, Icahn was a behind-the-scenes force in McDonald’s 2012 pledge to stop sourcing pork by 2022 from suppliers that used sow-gestation stalls that are too small to allow pigs to move or lie down.
McDonald’s pledge came as a result of input from the Humane Society of the United States, an animal rights organization. Michelle Nevin Icahn, the investor’s daughter, was involved with the Human Society’s push on that issue.
In a written statement to the Wall Street Journal, McDonald’s insisted more than 60% of its U.S. pork was sourced from “confirmed pregnant sows” kept out of gestation crates, and it pledged that figure to be 85% to 90% before the end of this year.
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What's Next: Icahn is openly skeptical of McDonald’s claim. He told Bloomberg TV he was in talks with the company’s leadership on the issue and would nominate “a few people” for its board of directors if the matter is not resolved to his satisfaction.
“We’re going to fight it as much as we can,” Icahn said in the interview. “We are probably 90% there from putting up a slate. You know, we’re not going to fool around with them anymore.”
Icahn added the subject is not predicated in finance — he only owns about 100 shares in McDonald’s — but in his concern over the “unnecessary suffering” experienced by the pigs.
“I think there’s a way I can be really helpful,” Icahn said. “That’s a situation that is just horrible. It’s obscene. You got these companies making all this money and the animals are just suffering for no reason.”
MCD Price Action: McDonald's stock is down about 6% in 2022, trading around $252 at publication time.
