(Bloomberg) -- Animal welfare is making records this proxy season. 

So far more than 40 shareholder resolutions have been or are planning to be filed to address animal safety at companies, including Wendy’s Co., Kraft Heinz Co. and Maple Leaf Foods Inc., according to the Sustainable Investments Institute, the Humane Society of the US and the Accountability Board. This is more than double the number of similar proposals filed last year and shows how the treatment of animals is becoming a growing concern for investors.

Animal-welfare resolutions have historically failed to get much backing. Proposals, going back to 2015, have received average shareholder support of 11.3%, well below the 30.4% average for all proxy votes over the same time period excluding abstentions, according to data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence.

A shareholder recommendation filed two years ago with Papa John’s International Inc. garnered among the highest backing of any animal-welfare resolution since 2015, at 41.8%. The proposal filed by the Humane Society “marked a tipping point” for animal-welfare filings, said Karla Dumas, the group’s vice president of farm animal protection. The Humane Society alleged that Papa John’s didn’t keep its shareholders updated on its steps to “move away” from gestation pig crates by 2022.

“Because animal-welfare proposals have been getting larger and larger votes, we’re going to continue seeing more of them,” Dumas said.

The increased number of animal-safety proposals is partly due to “the fact that there’s a clear nexus between animal abuse within a company’s operations or supply chain and financial risks,” said Leslie Samuelrich, president of Green Century Funds, an investment group that manages $1 billion.

Samuelrich was one of the people who activist investor Carl Icahn tried to add to the board of McDonald’s Corp. two years ago. Icahn brought widespread attention to the issue of animal welfare — specifically the treatment of pregnant pigs — when he initiated proxy fights against the fast-food giant and Kroger Co. He called for naming new directors to the boards of both companies to address the issue, but ultimately ended his efforts after his McDonald’s nominees lost in a shareholder vote.

“When Icahn nominated me and Maisie Ganzler for the board, the issue of animal welfare got more national press attention than at any other moment,” Samuelrich said. “Immediately thereafter, there was a slew of companies that agreed to policies, likely to avoid their own board fights.”

Read More: Icahn Drops Proxy Fight Over Pig Treatment at Kroger

About 29 of this year’s animal-welfare resolutions were filed by the Accountability Board, which has received funding from the Open Philanthropy Project, a group co-founded by Dustin Moskovitz, who worked with Mark Zuckerberg to start Facebook. The head of the Accountability Board, which raised more than $10 million, is Josh Balk, co-founder of plant-based food company Eat Just Inc. Samuelrich is on the group’s board.

The Humane Society has so far filed 10 animal-welfare shareholder proposals with companies including Denny’s Corp., Dine Brands Global Inc. and Papa John’s, several of which are related to gestation crates. The group plans to submit another four resolutions, Dumas said.

“There’s a well-established link between animal welfare and product quality,” she said. “For example, meat quality decreases if animals are stressed prior to slaughter. And there’s also reputational damage that can occur when companies are linked to animal cruelty.”

A spokesperson for Papa John’s said the company plans to disclose its responses to all shareholder proposals on March 28.

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