Billionaire investor Carl Icahn has said several times in recent days that McDonald's should ditch pork suppliers that fill their bags with pregnant pigs, a practice he considers cruel.

Icahn said again in an interview last week that pigs have good brains and are sentient animals, and he became emotional over the unnecessary suffering McDonald's caused them.

The billionaire owns just 200 shares of the fast-food giant, equivalent to about $25,000 in the $187 billion company.

However, that didn't stop him from nominating two new McDonald's board candidates to bolster his case that his motivations had nothing to do with profit.

The investor has nominated two people to run for McDonald's board of directors, McDonald's confirmed in a statement, in what could be the first step toward a proxy fight.

Icahn, who holds just 200 shares of McDonald's, told Bloomberg his motivations had nothing to do with profit.

Icahn's nominees include Leslie Samuelrich, president of Green Century Capital Management, which is committed to protecting "our water, air and land," and Maisie Ganzler, chief strategy and brand officer of Bon Appétit Management.

This could be Carl Icahn's first step toward a proxy fight.

McDonald's, which uses pork in its bacon cheeseburgers and sandwiches, said in a statement on Sunday that it had made some progress with its pork suppliers.

In a statement, McDonald's acknowledged Icahn's concerns about pigs but wondered why he didn't raise the issue within his own pork and poultry supply company, Viskase.

According to Icahn, McDonald's has failed to live up to its 10-year-old promise to stop buying pork from suppliers that use gestation crates, special pens in which pregnant pigs are confined most of their lives.

, so they cannot move.

McDonald's pledged in 2012 to phase out pork from controversial suppliers that used gestation crates, which were roughly the same size as the animals and had no room to turn around or lie down.

The Humane Society of the United States at the time applauded the announcement.

Most recently, it accused McDonald's of making several statements about gestation termination crates while allowing suppliers to keep sows in these crates for weeks on end during each gestation cycle throughout their lives.

In a 2017 update, McDonald's said that by the end of 2022 it would only buy U.S. pork from producers that do not crate-raise pregnant sows.

Now, McDonald's expects to source 85-90% of its U.S. pork from pigs not raised in gestation crates by the end of this year, and switch entirely to crate-free pork by the end of 2024.

But Icahn remains dissatisfied.

He said McDonald's suppliers only removed the pigs from the crates after they learned they were pregnant, when they should not have been using gestation crates at all.

Icahn said he's not telling people they can't eat meat, but there's just no need to lock pigs in this gestation crate and let the animals suffer and then be killed.

Icahn's stance is backed by Norwegian pension fund KLP, which holds $72 million in McDonald's, including its bonds and shares.

Kiran Aziz, head of responsible investment at KLP, said: "It is shocking that McDonald's has not stopped the cruel use of gestation pig farrowing boxes in its supply chain, so it requires renewed attention and strongly urges other shareholders to pay close attention to the matter."

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Until these practices are banned, it is the responsibility of global mega-rich companies like McDonald's to clamp down on this practice immediately.

While Icahn and KLP want McDonald's to source only crate-free pork, McDonald's believes the request is unrealistic.

McDonald's buys 1% of the pork produced in the United States and does not own any pigs of its own.