Long-distance transport of live cattle, sheep, and pigs causes substantial welfare impacts from heat, crowding, injury, and exhaustion — particularly in export trades spanning multiple countries.
Long-distance live animal transport represents a welfare problem that is simultaneously well-documented and slow to resolve. The suffering involved — heat stress, crowding, starvation, dehydration, injury, and mortality — has been captured in repeated regulatory investigations and undercover footage. The economic rationale — price premiums in destination markets, producer income — is real but does not eliminate the welfare obligation. The most direct welfare solution is shipping chilled or frozen carcasses rather than live animals, eliminating weeks of journey welfare costs while providing equivalent or superior economic outcomes in many markets. Progress requires both regulatory action and market structure change.