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Every year, millions of companion animals are loaded into trucks, planes, and cargo holds and shipped across the United States. For too many of them, that journey ends in suffering or death — not from accidents, but from a regulatory gap that leaves carriers free to set their own standards for temperature and ventilation. In other words, the conditions that determine whether an animal lives or dies are largely ungoverned.

The Rules That Exist Are Not Enough

USDA APHIS maintains some guidelines for pets transported by air cargo — crate dimensions, documentation requirements, handling procedures — but meaningful thermal and ventilation standards are vague at best.⁴ Ground transport falls into an even wider void. Without enforceable minimums across all modes of commercial transport, carriers make their own calls on conditions that are literally life or death.

Heat Kills. Cold Kills. Both Are Happening.

This is not a theoretical risk. During the record-breaking summer of 2025 in the United Kingdom, livestock heat deaths during transport doubled — a pattern tied directly to climate change pushing temperatures beyond what unregulated systems can handle.³ Animals packed into poorly ventilated vehicles overheat, suffer organ failure, and die before anyone realizes something has gone wrong.

Cold is just as lethal. A recent case ended in a historic cruelty conviction after pigs froze to death aboard a transport truck.² That ruling was rare. The tragedy it documented was not. A conviction after the fact does nothing for the animals who died — it is a record of failure, not a form of protection.

Animals in Transit Are Already Vulnerable

Transport stress compounds the danger. Animals in transit experience elevated stress hormones, suppressed immune function, and measurably reduced tolerance for temperature extremes — all before environmental conditions even become a factor.¹ A frightened, physiologically stressed animal has far less resilience to heat or cold. Without regulated airflow and temperature controls, every additional mile of the journey increases the odds against survival.

Climate Change Is Narrowing the Margin for Error

Extreme weather events are more frequent and more severe than they once were. Standards designed for average conditions are failing animals in an era defined by extremes.³ What was once a manageable risk has become a pattern with a body count — and the trend is moving in the wrong direction.

USDA APHIS Can Fix This

USDA APHIS has the authority to establish enforceable minimum temperature and ventilation requirements for commercial companion animal transport across all modes — truck, air, and cargo. Other countries have begun moving in this direction. The United States has not.⁴

The animals loaded into these vehicles cannot open a window, alert a driver, or wait for better conditions. They depend entirely on the rules set before their journey begins.

Sign the petition to urge the Administrator of USDA APHIS to establish mandatory temperature and ventilation standards for commercial companion animal transport — and give every animal in transit a fighting chance to arrive alive.