Animals that die during transport from farm to slaughterhouse represent a measurable welfare failure, and transport mortality rates provide a practical welfare indicator for supply chain monitoring.
Transport mortality is a welfare failure that is visible and measurable: animals that die in transit have experienced conditions sufficiently extreme to cause death, and their deaths represent the most severe end of a welfare continuum that includes many more animals experiencing sub-lethal but significant suffering. The million-plus animals dying in US transport annually are indicators of conditions that cause lesser suffering in far larger numbers of surviving animals. Transport mortality rates that are reported, monitored, and compared between producers provide a practical welfare accountability mechanism that is harder to falsify than compliance with housing standards. Regulatory requirements to report transport mortality and institutional purchasing standards that penalize high rates would create incentives for welfare investment that individual consumer purchasing cannot easily achieve.