Tell the USDA to Update Archaic Animal Transport Regulations

You’ve likely seen trucks on the highway packed with pigs, chickens, or other farmed animals. In crowded trailers or stacked crates, animals suffer long, grueling journeys with no food or water. These animals are usually on their way to slaughter, meaning their final hours or days are some of their most harrowing.

And transport trucks are not designed to protect animals from harsh weather.

  • In winter, farmed animals endure below-freezing conditions and are exposed to snow, rain, and frigid winds. Many die of hypothermia. Some even freeze to the floors or sides of trailers.
  • In summer, temperatures inside trucks rise to well over 100°F. Many animals suffer heat stress, asphyxiation, and heart attacks.
This is unacceptable suffering, and U.S. laws are nowhere near sufficient to protect these animals. Many animals suffer agonizing deaths from dehydration, suffocation, and severe injuries due to overcrowding.

Animal transport regulations in the United States are downright disgraceful. The U.S. Department of Agriculture and Department of Transportation have the authority to draft regulations for and enforce laws related to animal transport.

The time for action is now. 

Please join Mercy For Animals in calling on the USDA and Department of Transportation to modernize U.S. animal transport laws by providing species-appropriate space, rest time, food, water, and protection from extreme temperatures. Thank you.