Long-distance live sheep export by sea causes significant welfare harm through crowding, heat stress, respiratory disease and high mortality rates that have driven bans and restrictions in several exporting countries.
Live sheep export by sea represents a welfare problem compounded across every stage of a journey that may last weeks. Heat stress during summer voyages has caused catastrophic mortality events with thousands of sheep dying over days in temperatures that regulators failed to adequately restrict. Crowded pen conditions on ships prevent lying rest, normal social behavior and access to feed and water for weaker animals pushed to the periphery of groups. Respiratory disease spreads through ammoniated air that builds up when ventilation is inadequate for the stocking density. Surviving sheep arrive at destinations with compromised immune systems, dehydrated and stressed, to be slaughtered under conditions that may have no welfare oversight from the exporting country. The deaths during voyages represent direct welfare harm; the conditions that cause them represent chronic suffering across millions of animals.