Sheep are transported in large numbers over long distances for fattening, slaughter, and live export. Their prey animal psychology makes transport a significant welfare event.
Sheep transport combines multiple simultaneous welfare insults: unfamiliar vehicles, social mixing with strange animals, noise, vibration, feed and water withdrawal, and physiological stress from anticipatory anxiety. Prey animal psychology means sheep experience loading and confinement as predatory situations, with sustained high cortisol responses. Long-distance live export amplifies all these harms over extended durations, with cumulative effects including immune suppression, injury, and respiratory disease. The welfare case for meat-only trade over live export is compelling.