Transporting livestock for slaughter or further fattening is a major welfare challenge. Long journeys cause stress, injury, and mortality that evidence-based regulation and industry practice can substantially reduce.
Livestock transport welfare involves acute stressors at every stage: loading (unfamiliar handlers, ramps, novel vehicle environment), travel (thermal stress, motion sickness, crowding, vibration), and unloading (further handling stress, novel environment). For many animals, transport represents the single most stressful experience of their lives. Thermal stress is particularly dangerous — heat deaths in poultry transport during summer are widespread but underreported. Space allowances below scientific recommendations cause increased injury rates from crowding and falling. Long-distance export journeys for live animals — crossing multiple borders over many days — represent significant accumulated welfare harm. The principle of slaughtering as close to the point of production as possible reduces transport duration and associated welfare harm. Regulatory enforcement, better training for drivers and handlers, and technological solutions including real-time thermal monitoring are improving outcomes in countries that invest in enforcement.