Change The 150-Year-Old Law Leaving Livestock Unprotected on the Road

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The "Twenty-Eight Hour Law" has been on the books since 1873. It requires that livestock transported across state lines be unloaded, fed, watered, and rested for at least five consecutive hours after every 28 hours of continuous travel. The law was written for the era of the steam locomotive. Today, tens of millions of cattle, pigs, sheep, and horses move by truck — and the statute meant to protect them has barely changed in a century and a half.¹

In June 2026, the U.S. Government Accountability Office released a detailed report on the state of livestock transport oversight. The findings were stark: the law is outdated, enforcement is broken, and Congress has the power to fix it.¹

Nobody Is Actually in Charge

Three federal agencies — the USDA, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Justice — share jurisdiction over the Twenty-Eight Hour Law. None of them has a clearly defined mandate to inspect vehicles, investigate violations, or pursue penalties. The result is a system where violations go undetected and unaddressed.^1,2

The penalty structure makes things worse. Fines cap out at $500 per violation — a figure set in 1994 and never adjusted. For large commercial shipping operations, that number is not a deterrent. The GAO specifically identified the inadequacy of current penalties as a barrier to meaningful compliance.⁵

The Law Ignores Basic Welfare Conditions

The Twenty-Eight Hour Law says nothing about the physical condition of the animals being loaded. There are no standards for vehicle sanitation, no clear definition of what adequate food and water must look like during a rest stop, and no explicit prohibition on loading animals that are injured or unfit for travel.^1,3 Other countries have moved well beyond these baseline standards.⁶

Farm animals are largely excluded from the Animal Welfare Act, which makes the Twenty-Eight Hour Law one of the only federal statutes that applies to them at all.⁴ That makes its gaps especially consequential. The Animal Welfare Institute has long called for enforceable transport standards covering fitness for travel and vehicle conditions — and the GAO report validated those recommendations directly.⁷

Congress Has a Clear Roadmap

The GAO identified specific steps: clarify enforcement authority across the USDA, DOT, and DOJ; raise penalties to a level that creates real accountability; and add explicit welfare standards for animal fitness and vehicle sanitation.^1,3 Those recommendations now sit with Congress. The Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry is positioned to act on them.

Millions of animals travel across state lines every year under a law written before the automobile existed. That is a policy gap — and policy gaps can be closed.

Sign the petition now to urge the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee to pass legislation that modernizes the Twenty-Eight Hour Law, closes the enforcement vacuum, and gives livestock the basic protections they deserve.