Every year, billions of farm animals are transported to slaughter, often enduring journeys of many hours or days without food, water, or rest.
Transport is consistently identified as one of the highest-welfare-impact stages of farm animal lives. The combination of unfamiliar environment, motion, noise, crowding, loss of social groups, deprivation of food and water, and exposure to extremes creates acute suffering. Long-haul live export adds weeks to this suffering for animals shipped internationally. The welfare case for replacing live export with chilled meat export (slaughter at origin) is compelling but faces economic resistance from importing countries that prefer live animals for religious slaughter.