Live export of cattle, sheep, and goats by ship across oceans is associated with high mortality, heat stress, and conditions incompatible with good welfare.
Live export welfare failures are structural rather than incidental. Long ocean journeys, dense stocking, insufficient ventilation, heat crossing equatorial regions, and unavoidable disease transmission combine to make good welfare essentially impossible in large-scale live export. The economic argument — destination countries require live animals for religious slaughter and refrigeration infrastructure is inadequate — does not justify the welfare cost. Transition to chilled or frozen meat exports eliminates both transport welfare problems and the risk of slaughter in lower-welfare destination country facilities. This transition requires both producer support and receiving country infrastructure investment.