Ensuring livestock are fit to travel before loading is a legal requirement in many countries that reduces suffering during transport and mortality on arrival.
Transport fitness assessment represents a critical welfare checkpoint that is frequently bypassed due to commercial pressure to move animals. Animals that are lame, ill, injured, or in late pregnancy should not be transported — not only is this a welfare requirement but it reflects basic respect for animals as sentient beings rather than goods. The downstream consequences of transporting unfit animals are significant: elevated in-transit mortality, arrival in conditions requiring veterinary intervention, and prolonged suffering throughout the journey. Robust enforcement of fitness requirements and accountability systems at loading would deliver major welfare improvements.