Long-distance livestock transport causes significant welfare harm through crowding, temperature extremes, exhaustion, and injury. Regulations exist but enforcement and compliance remain inadequate.
Livestock transport welfare is a domain where the gap between regulations and actual animal welfare outcomes is particularly wide. While EU and other regulations set maximum journey times and specify vehicle requirements, enforcement is inconsistent and the permitted journey durations exceed what animals can endure without significant welfare compromise. Long journeys cause cumulative stress, exhaustion, dehydration, and injury at rates that regulations permit but welfare science condemns. The live export of animals for slaughter in third countries removes even the basic regulatory protections that exist domestically. The welfare solution involves shortening maximum journey times, improving enforcement, expanding slaughter near origin with chilled meat transport replacing live animal transport.