USDA To Start Regulating the Transport of Farmed Animals on Trucks

Reversing its decades-old policy, the USDA will now require food, water, and rest for farmed animals moved long distances on trucks.

This landmark decision comes just one year after Compassion Over Killing, along with The Humane Society of the United States, Farm Sanctuary, and Animals’ Angels, filed a petition with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) requesting that it regulate the interstate trucking of farmed animals in accord with the limits set by the federal Twenty-Eight Hour Law of 1873.

The Twenty-Eight Hour Law is one of the nation’s oldest animal protection laws and one of the few federal statutes that applies to farmed animals. It clearly states that, with limited exceptions, animals cannot be transported via “rail carrier, express carrier, or common carrier” for more than 28 consecutive hours without being unloaded for five hours for “feeding, water, and rest.”

At the time this law was written, the primary vehicle for movement of livestock was the rail car. In the early 1950s, however, trucks surpassed the use of rail cars and remain the dominant carrier in the industry today, comprising more than 95% of current farmed animal transport.

In July 2005, a COK investigation revealed that, in many cases, farmed animals are overcrowded onto trucks and moved long distances—often exceeding 28 hours—without food, water, or a chance to rest. As a result of these hardships, an untold number of animals suffer in-transit injuries, illness, stress, and even death.

Until its recent announcement, the USDA, the agency responsible for enforcing this statute, has avoided applying it to trucks, claiming it was only applicable to animals shipped via rail carrier. After reviewing the petition filed in October 2005, the USDA response states: “[W]e agree that the plain meaning of the statutory term ‘vehicle’ in the Twenty-Eight Hour Law includes trucks…”

Learn more about COK’s investigation and the Twenty-Eight Hour Law.