The loading and transport of poultry involves welfare harms at multiple stages — catching, crating, journey conditions, and unloading — affecting billions of birds annually.
Poultry transport welfare is one of the most welfare-compromising stages of broiler production. Catching — whether manual (grabbing birds by the legs) or mechanical — causes injuries including dislocated hips and fractured bones. Loading into transport crates at high density restricts movement and causes heat stress in warm weather. Journey times without water access cause dehydration. Temperature extremes — inadequately ventilated trucks in summer, freezing conditions in winter — kill birds before they reach the slaughterhouse. The aggregate welfare harm is enormous given the scale: even a 0.1% mortality rate represents 9 million birds dying in transport in the US annually.