Do Trucker Log Loopholes Put Animals at Risk?

In August 2025, an undercover investigator recorded videos of three livestock truck operators appearing to admit to falsifying their logbooks while visiting truck stops across the Midwest. Truck drivers are legally required to record their driving and rest hours, typically through electronic logging devices. However, short-haul agricultural transports within 150 air miles of the animal loading location may use paper logbooks due to a number of exemptions. 

The investigation carried out by the animal advocacy groups Strategies for Ethical and Environmental Development (SEED) and Animal Partisan found that animals and the public may be put at risk when drivers falsify or fail to maintain required logs. There’s a general mentality, the investigator tells Sentient, “of go and don’t stop,” for breaks, regardless of the rules. 

Rules put in place to avoid driver fatigue can also be at odds with an animal welfare rule called the Twenty-Eight Hour Law, which is how long animals may stay on a truck without being unloaded and given food, water and rest. 

Animal welfare advocates have long called for stronger oversight. One U.S. congresswoman is pushing to tighten animal transport regulations and strengthen enforcement. Meanwhile, a meat industry-backed proposal seeks even greater flexibility and permanent exemptions.

Separate Rules for Drivers and Animals

Federal law allows livestock transported across state lines to remain on trucks for up to 28 consecutive hours without food, water or rest, after which they must be unloaded and given at least five hours of rest, except in cases of accidental or unavoidable delay.

However, the Twenty-Eight Hour Law does not always align with mandated hours-of-service laws and other safe-driving rules, Adrienne Craig, staff attorney and senior policy associate of Animal Welfare Institute’s Farmed Animal Program, tells Sentient.

Truck drivers are legally permitted to drive a maximum of 11 hours after a break of at least 10 consecutive hours. But for the animals, “stopping for ten hours and sitting in a trailer is not good for their welfare,” depending on the weather, where they are, and their condition, says Craig. She adds that a shipment of animals over long distances could not feasibly be completed in under 28 hours with a single driver.

The 11-hour driving limit is intended to protect drivers and reduce the risk of fatigue on the road. To monitor this, federal regulations require drivers to maintain detailed records of their driving and rest hours. Most sectors of transport use electronic logging devices to record truck activity, but livestock haulers are exempt within 150 air miles of the location where the animals are loaded. In these cases, farm animal transporters are allowed to use paper logbooks.

An Honor System for Livestock Haulers

Without the oversight of electronic and automated tracking in exemption zones, livestock transporters are effectively bound to an honor system that relies on self-reporting. However, the SEED investigation suggests that some drivers are not complying with it. 

Sentient reviewed the video footage gathered by SEED’s investigator, in which one driver states, “I don’t even use mine,” in reference to his logbook. “It’s blank. They don’t bother you,” he added, presumably talking about the authorities.  

Another driver admits that, “once you get to your delivery, you have to take a ten-hour break. But you’re also on paper, so you can make it look however you want.” 

There is also a driver who talks about running two logbooks, “One that’s real and one that’s real,” he says, using air quotes each time he says ‘real.’ Drivers who don’t take the required breaks to prevent fatigue can put animals and themselves at risk, as well as anyone else in the path of a crash. 

For the period between November 2023 and August 2025, Animal Partisan obtained official records for 10 crashes involving livestock trucks. Five of those crashes were caused by unsafe speeds and speeding, and the other five by reckless, unsafe or distracted driving. 

Logbooks are an essential part of the Department of Transportation’s regulatory scheme “to protect the driving public from fatigued drivers behind the wheel of tractor-trailers,” writes Will Lowrey, legal counsel for Animal Partisan, in an email to Sentient. He says his group “repeatedly encounters the aftermath of livestock truck accidents caused by unsafe speeds, reckless or distracted driving, and improper lane changes. It’s reasonable to infer that some of these accidents happened because the driver — responsible for the lives of dozens or hundreds of animals — was fatigued.” 

In September of 2025, Animal Partisan filed a complaint with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration regarding the SEED trucker logbook investigation, alleging that the three livestock transport companies and their drivers violated federal safety rules. 

In January 2026, the agency dismissed the complaint, determining the video footage of the driver admissions was “insufficient.” Sentient contacted the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration to inquire if there was any investigation into any of the drivers. The agency did not respond.

Dueling Bills for Animal Transport Legislation

The considerable number of livestock animals harmed during truck transport in the United States could be reduced with more oversight and better enforcement, say animal advocates. According to a 2022 investigation by The Guardian, tens of millions of animals die during transport or soon after arriving at slaughterhouses in the United States each year. This includes around 20 million chickens, 330 thousand pigs and 166 thousand cattle. “A further 800,000 pigs are calculated to be unable to walk on arrival,” according to the article. 

But as animal advocates press for greater accountability, the meat industry and one Republican congressman are pushing for more flexibility. In July 2025, Colorado representative Jeff Hurd introduced a bill that seeks to permanently exempt commercial vehicles transporting animals, including livestock, from federal hours-of-service rules and electronic logging requirements. The Hauling Exemptions for Livestock Protection (HELP) Act frames its exemptions as a means to increase animal welfare. 

“The HELP Act provides much-needed relief from burdensome regulations, allowing haulers to prioritize animal welfare without unnecessary delays,” said Tennessee representative John Rose in a statement supporting the bill. The bill has also received endorsement from industry groups, including the American Farm Bureau Federation and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. 

Sentient contacted Hurd’s office to inquire if any animal welfare groups were consulted during the creation of the bill, or if any have endorsed it. Hurd’s office did not respond. 

Meanwhile, the Humane Transport of Farmed Animals Act was introduced in September 2025 by Democratic Congresswoman Dina Titus of Nevada, in collaboration with the Animal Welfare Institute. It directs the Departments of Transportation and Agriculture to develop better enforcement mechanisms — including inspections of vehicles and written or electronic records related to animal transport — to ensure compliance with the Twenty-Eight Hour Law. It would also expand protections by prohibiting interstate movement of animals deemed unfit to travel. 

“The Humane Transport of Farmed Animals Act would stop this lax regulation that has resulted in many animals being injured or succumbing to disease during transport,” Titus said in a statement. 

“This bill is a critical step to closing many of the gaps in current federal law that have allowed animals to suffer in transport for decades,” writes Lowrey. “Meaningful enforcement would disincentivize haulers from treating animals as merely inanimate commodities.”  

Sentient contacted Titus’s office for comment on the SEED investigation alleging drivers falsified logbooks. A representative says the incident “is exactly the lack of oversight the bill seeks to address.” 

The two proposals target different parts of the livestock transport system. One would expand driver-hour exemptions, while the other seeks stronger enforcement of animal rest requirements.

As Congress continues to debate whether to loosen or strengthen oversight of livestock transport, advocates argue that the stakes are clear. Without reliable monitoring and enforcement of driving hours and rest breaks, animal safety could remain at risk. 

Editor’s note: A founder of SEED serves on Sentient’s board of directors. The board does not have any editorial input.