Mortality and serious injury during cattle transport represents a significant welfare failure with economic consequences, requiring improved pre-transport assessment, vehicle design, and driver training.
Cattle that die during transport or arrive non-ambulatory have experienced severe suffering. Many transport deaths involve animals that were unfit to travel at the point of loading. The stress of transport even in well-designed vehicles is substantial, involving fear, motion sickness, thermal stress, and exertion. Regulatory frameworks exist in most jurisdictions but enforcement varies considerably. Genuine welfare improvement requires a system-wide approach addressing pre-transport fitness, vehicle standards, journey time limits, and driver competence as interconnected factors.