Prepared by: Dr H J Wirth

1. Why are animals transported?

Animals are valued by people for social, cultural, economic and emotional reasons. They provide food, fibre and companionship, are used in sport, recreation and scientific study, and have increasing importance as environmental assets in their own right. Animals are transported between nations for all of these reasons, and the consequent traffic involved is a significant part of global trading and cultural exchange. This traffic will continue in the future and can be expected to increase with the growing international mobility of people and improvements in the methods of transportation. 

2. Can animals be transported without suffering?

All modes of transport are potentially hazardous for animals and may be associated with disease, stress and suffering, regardless of whether travel is between or within countries, or by road, rail, air or sea. Experience over a long period and throughout the world, however, demonstrates that animals can travel between countries by modern forms of transportation without being harmed. The provision of suitable standards and conditions and the establishment of a mutually satisfactory framework for regulating the international transport of animals depends on an understanding of their welfare needs and of the biological basis for disease, stress and suffering. 

3. Nature and magnitude of international transport of animals

International transport of animals refers to the transport of animals from one country to another, often by way of intermediate countries, and involves the crossing of international frontiers. Transport may occur by road, rail, air or sea and may take short or long periods of time. Often a number of modes of transport may be involved to complete the journey between farm gate and final destination. For instance, animals for export may travel by road or rail to an assembly point, be exported by sea or air, and be transported again by road or rail to final destination within the importing country. 

There is abundant practical evidence throughout the world that economically valuable animals are transported singly or in small groups using systems of transport which protect their welfare because no reasonable cost is spared. By contrast, live animals for food are transported in large to very large groups using systems of transport where husbandry standards are severely compromised due to cost pressures. 

Comprehensive statistics pertaining to the international transport of animals are not readily available. Recent figures for the trade in live animals for food easily tops $US10 billion each for both imports and exports. The major exporting nations of live animals for food include Australia, the European Community, North America and, to a lesser extent, Latin America and New Zealand. The major importing nations of live animals for food include Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America. 

4. Why will the international transport of animals continue?

Closer trading and cultural ties between nations and the growing demand for meat make it likely that the international transport of animals will continue. This will be in spite of advances in reproductive technologies which allow for the transport of semen, ova and embryos enabling the easier development of home herds. The international trade in live animals for food is underpinned by cultural, including religious, mores and practical issues such as availability of refrigeration. 

5. Welfare, stress and disease in international transport of animals

Welfare, stress and disease are interrelated and are particularly important when evaluating the effects of live animal transport. 

(a) Animal Welfare refers to the state of an animal, not to human care. The overall welfare of an animal is judged by uniting the intelligence provided by the principles of science with morality because they are mutually dependent. Science provides the methods and understanding necessary to appraise needs and the state of an animal, while the deficiencies in human care which lead to poor animal welfare form the connection with ethics and morality. 

(b) Stress appears when the mechanisms in animals for coping with their environment become over-extended and begin to break down. Important environmental factors which produce stressors include inadequate nutrition, deprivation of water, heat, cold and overcrowding. Stress reduces the fitness of an animal and this is expressed by disease and death. 

(c) The presence of disease can indicate a breakdown in appropriate husbandry and can signal underlying welfare problems. The incidence of disease is thus an elementary indicator of welfare in circumstances such as international transport. Disease can also be accompanied by discomfort or suffering. Disease must be prevented or, failing that, rapidly treated in order to maintain welfare. The specific diseases which have long been associated with animal transport are bacterial, viral or metabolic. 

The onset of a disease depends on other factors in addition to the presence of a primary causative agent. Resistance to infection (the immune mechanism) can be compromised by poor nutrition, exposure to extremes of climate and damaging social interactions. 

Both stress and disease in animal transportation raises the issue of adaptation by animals to the process of transportation. The ability to adapt to change varies depending on the stressor. Adaptation to changes of climate, nutrition and routine may follow different schedules and thus the process of adaptation to all of these factors may not be concurrent or be well developed prior to transport. 

6. Welfare Needs and Welfare Factors Associated with Transport

(a) The Five Freedoms: The five freedoms for animals refer to the moral responsibility of addressing the biological needs of animals. 

(b) Biological Needs for Animals subject to Transportation:

• sufficient palatable, nutritionally-balanced feed, adequate for physiological requirements; 
• sufficient drinkable water; 
• air which is free of noxious gases; 
• an environment which provides for behavioural expression and which does not cause undue physical restriction; 
• natural or artificial protection from adverse weather conditions; 
• protection from parasites, disease, predators and injury; and 
• access to suitable treatment (including prompt humane slaughter) when required. 

Factors influencing the welfare of animals during transport include the following stressors: 

• separation from a familiar environment and family groups and the forced interaction between unfamiliar animals during transport; 
• general handling, loading and unloading and the degree of interaction with humans prior to the experience of transport; 
• overcrowding in confined spaces; 
• transport types and the various related mechanical factors such as jolting, swaying, vibration, acceleration and deceleration and unfamiliar and loud noises; 
• climatic conditions outside the range normally experienced by the animals, including extremes of humidity and temperature; 
• duration of transport, including long periods of waiting during which there may be no ventilation, alternating with rapid air movement when the vehicle is in motion; 
• gases from faeces, urine and vehicle and other fumes; 
• feed and water intake, including the deprivation of feed and water exacerbating various metabolic disorders; and 
  fear. 

7. Fundamental Considerations in International Transport

(a) steps such as collection, assembly, loading and unloading are common to all forms of animal transport and present particular animal welfare hazards; regulations and quality control procedures can be applied at all these stages; 

(b) economic and animal welfare factors do not necessarily have to work against one another; there must be strong financial incentives to prevent stress and disease and to protect welfare during transport; 

(c) rules and regulations are important in the protection of animals but the quality of care is ultimately determined by the skills and attitudes of people; the care of animals can be taught and learned by receptive people through either formal or informal processes; and 

(d) animal welfare will be improved by any measures which reduce either the length or the number of journeys; this does not contradict the idea that animals can be transported over long distances and for long times under suitable conditions but, rather, recognises that the degree of risk is related to the amount of exposure to potential hazards; thus direct sale and movement of slaughter animals from farms into nearby abattoirs, without intermediate travel to livestock markets, has clear-cut benefits for welfare. 

8 Modes of Transport

(a) Road Transport: 

Road transport can be classified into three categories: short, medium and long haul. The difference between these categories is significant for welfare, in view of the time involved and because different types of vehicles may be used. Specific considerations for road transport include the following: 

• vehicle design standards related to the comfort of livestock; 
• standards for loading and unloading facilities; 
• the use of goads; 
• loading densities; 
• rest periods; 
• times for feeding and watering; and 
• measures for responding to road accidents where livestock are injured 

(b) Rail Transport: 

The requirements for rail transport are essentially similar to those for road transport, focussing on standards for vehicles, rest periods, and times for feeding and watering. Rail transport has the disadvantage of repeated handling of livestock, namely the loading and unloading from road transport at the start and finish of the journey. In many parts of the world, conditions for the rail transport of animals, including the stockmanship involved, are considered poorer than those for road transport. Rail transport for farm animals is therefore less favoured and has been completely abandoned in many countries. 

(c) Sea Transport: 

The conditions for the transport of animals by sea have improved with general enhancements in ship design for seaworthiness and comfort and advances in aids for navigation which increase the opportunity for avoiding heavy weather. Regrettably, vessels used for the sea transport of animals are, in the main, vessels which have been converted from the original purpose for which they were built. In reality, farm animals placed below deck enter an enclosed intensive animal house and are immediately exposed to the hazards associated with poor ventilation, overcrowding, and extremes of temperature and humidity. A completely new approach to the design of vessels used for animal transport which takes into account both the needs of safe navigation and those of the animals being transported is absolutely essential. 

(d) Air Transport: 

Issues related to aircraft safety have largely dictated the early development of the International Air Transport Association Rules for the carriage of animals by air. Nonetheless, as with sea transport, groups of animals boarding aircraft enter an enclosed intensive animal house and are particularly vulnerable to ventilation failure and extremes of temperature and humidity if the aircraft spends even relatively short periods on the ground after loading. 

9 Legal Considerations:

Animal care and protection of laws are designed to underpin minimum standards of human behaviour towards animals and to provide a mechanism of accountability where these standards are breached. In order that the welfare of animals is protected, each stage of the process from: 

• selection of animals to be transported: 
• land transport to assembly; 
• land, sea or air transport to the importing country; and 
• land transport within the importing country to final destination must be regulated. 

If international transport of animals includes an intermediate country, then satisfactory regulations to protect animals must also exist there. If laws regulating the transport of animals actually exist they regularly fail because: 

(a) they are antiquated, cast in general terms, non-specific, cover only part of the journey from farm gate to final destination, or set too low a standard; 

(b) they are unenforceable, particularly in international areas, or simply unenforced; or 

(c) in the general global deregulatory atmosphere, statute law and regulations have been either minimised or abandoned in favour of self-regulation. 

10. What should be the Attitude of Animal Welfare Societies to Transportation?

Because all forms of transport are potentially hazardous for animals, it is difficult, from a purely ethical and moral viewpoint, for animal welfarists to support such an activity, particularly the international long distance transport of animals for food. 
There is, however, adequate scientific biological information currently available which, if applied in a practical way, permits animals to be transported under suitable conditions without harm to their welfare. 

The WSPA Policy Statement adopts this approach outlining acceptable standards for the safe transport of animals so long as they are underpinned by a framework of regulations. 

Where suitable conditions for animal transport cannot be met (cf: vehicle or vessel design; ventilation, etc.) or where regulatory controls are poor, non-existent, unenforced or unenforceable, then the particular style of animal transport to which this applies should be opposed. Rail, road and sea transport of animals are three modes of transport which regularly cannot meet WSPA requirements.