Activist investor Carl Icahn wants to use newcomers in management to force McDonald's fast food chain to increase animal welfare in the supply chain.

Icahn proposed eco-fund manager Leslie Samuelrich and restaurant chain manager Maisie Ganzler for election to the board of directors at the AGM.

Icahn criticizes that McDonald's is still being supplied by pork producers with crates: Pregnant sows are squeezed into narrow crates.

In 2012, McDonald's announced that US suppliers should come up with plans to phase out these crates.

McDonald's has now said it will review Icahn's nominees like everyone else.

The group is a leader in the industry in pushing back the criticized practice.

pigs and sausage skins

McDonald's says it buys about 1 percent of all pork in the United States.

The globally known fast-food restaurant operator also counterattacked: According to its own statements, Icahn holds 200 McDonald's shares and, on the other hand, is the majority owner of the sausage casing manufacturer Viskase, known in Germany to connoisseurs as a competitor of the local supplier Kalle, which used to belong to Hoechst.

It is interesting that Icahn has not yet publicly requested any similar commitments from Viskase.