Summer heat transport of pigs, poultry, and cattle causes mass mortality events and widespread suffering that are preventable with scheduling and vehicle design changes.
Animals transported in summer heat experience extreme thermal stress, dehydration, and sometimes cardiac death before reaching slaughter facilities. Pigs especially, lacking functional sweat glands, reach critical body temperatures rapidly in inadequately ventilated trailers. Scheduling transport for cooler parts of the day and requiring minimum ventilation standards are both effective and low-cost interventions.