In late August 2021, Animal Outlook investigators followed a truck belonging to Isaacson Truck Line, Inc. for approximately 32 hours, documenting its journey of more than 1,200 miles from Nebraska to California with a trailer full of pigs. During this time, the pigs were never let out of the truck and were exposed to the summer heat the entire time.

Transport is known to be stressful and dangerous for animals. It is difficult for animals to regulate their body temperatures under stress in overcrowded, poorly ventilated transport vehicles. In addition to overcrowding, loud noises, motion sickness, and dehydration put an extraordinary amount of mental and physical stress on the animals. In high temperatures, exhaustion, dehydration, heat stress, cardiac arrest and sudden death are common.

The Twenty-Eight Hour Law prohibits transporting animals for more than 28 consecutive hours without unloading them for at least five hours of rest and providing water and food. Although it is clearly illegal under federal law, gruelingly long transport with no opportunities for rest, food or water is a commonplace reality for farmed animals because the law is woefully under-enforced. We’re calling on the USDA and the Department of Justice to enforce this law on the basis of our investigation and wherever violations occur. And the law is in need of reform – our country lags behind in protecting animals in transport  – such as the EU, where animals must be allowed to rest and given food and water every eight hours.

Our investigations in 2005 and 2012, along with this one, uncovered and documented what we allege to be violations of this federal law. Shockingly, in our 2012 investigation, we also documented dead pigs dumped on the side of the road after they died on the transport truck. When pigs die during transport, the driver may dump them or leave them in with the live pigs for the remainder of the journey.

Nearly 726,000 pigs and 29,000 cows die in transport every year – just in the U.S. Yet there were only 11 investigations into potential violations in a recent 12-year period.

Prior to our 2005 investigation, the USDA had refused to enforce the law when animals were transported by truck. After our investigation, we and our coalition partners submitted a petition to the USDA to apply the law to trucks. The USDA then reversed its policy and acknowledged that the law applies to trucks, yet enforcement remains rare.

Below is our investigators’ account of the harrowing journey during our 2021 investigation.

Monday, August 23, 2021

It was around 3PM CT. I had my phone plugged in at a rest stop in Dawson County, NE when a livestock truck passed by going west on the highway. The trailer had only small holes in the sides and the truck’s speed made it hard to discern if there were animals in the trailer. For a split second I thought I saw a flash of pink as the truck passed, so I hurriedly gathered my belongings and ran back to the car where another investigator was waiting. They hadn’t seen anything to indicate the presence of pigs in the trailer, but we decided to confirm for ourselves.

We went off after the truck. After catching up, we peered through the holes in the back of the metal trailer.  We could see pink flesh through the holes.

We alerted our colleague who was waiting in another vehicle at a different location. The other vehicle caught up with us and together, we followed the truck on its long journey across the country. It was a hot day, with temperatures reaching up to 91F as we traveled through Nebraska.