Animal Outlook welcomes today’s Government Accountability Office report recommending that Congress modernize the Twenty-Eight Hour Law to better protect livestock during transport. π The report validates what our organization has documented for decades: the federal government has failed to meaningfully enforce basic protections for animals enduring grueling cross-country journeys.
For years, our investigators have followed livestock trucks traveling well beyond the legal limit, filed enforcement requests with USDA, and used Freedom of Information Act requests to expose government inaction. π The GAO report reveals that from 2013 through 2025, USDA referred potential violations but took no enforcement action because it lacks regulatory authority. The law also fails to address critical welfare factors such as animals’ fitness for transport and vehicle sanitation.
It’s particularly striking that this report comes as South Texas cattle are under lockdown due to New World Screwworm. π¦ This timing underscores the dangerous reality of long-distance livestock transport: it’s not just an animal welfare crisis, but a disease transmission risk. When animals are transported in unsanitary conditions across state lines without proper health screening, we create perfect conditions for spreading disease while inflicting tremendous suffering.
The Twenty-Eight Hour Law was passed in 1873, and it shows. After decades of our advocacy and investigation, we finally have the government’s own watchdog agency confirming what we’ve known all along: the system is broken. Now it’s time for Congress to fix it. βοΈ Animals transported across this country deserve more than a 150-year-old law that no one enforces.