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Urge the USDA and Dairy Industry to Adopt Criteria to Ensure Vulnerable Animals Are Fit to Travel Prior to Transport
Dear John,
Each year, millions of farmed animals are subjected to long, grueling journeys across the United States for various purposes, including for breeding, feeding, and slaughter. Transport is extremely stressful for these animals; in addition to the increased handling and startling environs of noisy, vibrating transport trailers, they often endure temperature extremes, overcrowding, and prolonged food and water deprivation.
The journey is even more torturous for high-risk groups, including the very young and the infirm. Many of these animals are unfit to travel--they cannot be transported without experiencing significant suffering or death. AWI research reveals ([link removed]), however, that hundreds of thousands of dairy calves under a month old (many only a few days old) are subjected to lengthy cross-country transport. "Cull" animals (those removed from a producing herd due to age, illness, or other infirmity) are also regularly shipped long distances to slaughterhouses, with some already dead or immobile upon arrival. Such practices go against transport guidelines established by the leading international authority on the health and welfare of animals, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH).
The National Dairy Farmers Assuring Responsible Management (FARM) Program audits and certifies dairy producers and processors based on standards in five categories, including animal welfare. During the standards review process in 2022, AWI encouraged ([link removed]) FARM to adopt the WOAH fitness-for-travel guidelines, but the request was ignored. Now, AWI has submitted a rulemaking petition to the USDA, urging it to establish several fitness-to-travel criteria consistent with these international standards to protect these vulnerable animals during transport.
TAKE ACTION ([link removed])
What You Can Do
Please urge the USDA to grant AWI's petition for rulemaking and urge the FARM Program to revise its animal care standards ([link removed]) to adopt fitness-to-travel guidelines that restrict transport of newborn calves and older cows in physical decline after years of production.
As always, thank you very much for your help!
Sincerely,
Adrienne Craig
Staff Attorney and Policy Associate
Farmed Animal Program
P.S. Follow us on Facebook ([link removed]), X (formerly Twitter) ([link removed]), and Instagram ([link removed]) for other important animal protection actions and news. Check out the latest edition of the AWI Quarterly ([link removed])!
Photo by Animals' Angels
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Animal Welfare Institute
900 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE, Washington, DC 20003
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The Animal Welfare Institute is a not-for-profit organization, founded in 1951 and dedicated to reducing animal suffering caused by people. We seek better treatment of animals everywhere: in the laboratory, on the farm, in commerce, at home, and in the wild.
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