Cattle transport causes significant welfare harms including stress, injury, and exhaustion, but advances in vehicle design, journey planning, and monitoring are improving outcomes for transported cattle.
Cattle transport welfare is shaped by multiple interacting factors. Journey duration is important - longer journeys compound stress and fatigue - but short journeys with rough handling, poor vehicle design, or inadequate loading can cause worse welfare than well-managed longer journeys. Mixing unfamiliar cattle causes social stress and aggression. Temperature extremes in vehicles cause acute thermal stress. Modern welfare advances include improved vehicle ventilation and insulation, GPS monitoring, behaviour-sensor systems, and driver training programmes. The principle of transporting chilled carcasses rather than live animals remains the gold standard welfare solution for long-distance slaughter trade.