Animals in Transport Languish as Twenty-Eight Hour Law Goes Off the Rails

Authors

Michelle Pawliger, Animal Welfare Institute
Dena Jones, Animal Welfare Institute

Abstract

This Article seeks to identify how the U.S. Twenty-Eight Hour Law, requiring feeding, water, and rest for specific animals being transported after twenty-eight hours of travel, is not being adequately enforced by United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) or United States Department of Transportation (DOT). In this Article, AWI first establishes the legal background of the Twenty-Eight Hour Law and subsequent regulations implemented by the USDA and DOT. Next, AWI discusses the recent history of the law’s implementation, or lack thereof, by these Departments and enforcement protocol of the Investigative and Enforcement Services for the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). The Article then establishes how the current implementation of the Twenty-Eight Hour Law by this agency fails to monitor a large quantity of animal shipments and is insufficient in prosecuting or detecting violation of the law. The Article concludes that the USDA has statutory authority to implement the law and suggests numerous mechanisms for improving the implementation of the Twenty-Eight Hour Law.

Recommended Citation

Michelle Pawliger & Dena Jones, Animals in Transport Languish as Twenty-Eight Hour Law Goes Off the Rails, 25 Animal L. Rev. (2018).
Available at: https://lawcommons.lclark.edu/alr/vol25/iss1/2