Animal Partisan complaint alleges livestock trucking companies violated federal highway safety laws
September 18, 2025
Animal Partisan has filed an administrative complaint with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) alleging that three livestock trucking companies and their drivers violated federal regulations intended to protect public safety. The complaint is based on an undercover investigation conducted in partnership with Strategies for Ethical and Environmental Development (SEED) focused on the transportation of animals throughout the Midwest.
Every year, millions of pigs and cattle are transported across the United States. These animals endure grueling journeys, packed into the back of tractor trailers and often subjected to extreme weather conditions while being transported between farms, to auctions, or slaughterhouses. A recent report issued by the Animal Welfare Institute documents the government’s failure in protecting animals during transport, including the absence of any meaningful oversight or monitoring for shipments of animals, confusion between federal agencies as to responsibility for animal transport, lax and toothless enforcement, and laws that intentionally exclude the majority of animals exploited for food in the United States. In short, laws that regulate the transportation of millions of farmed animals across the country are ineffective or virtually nonexistent.
Troublingly, our investigation found that even some of the few laws intended to control this industry responsible for the lives of millions of sentient animals are being openly violated by livestock truck drivers and companies concerned only with profit. During the recent Midwest investigation, SEED documented conversations with multiple livestock truck drivers in both Kansas and Nebraska in which the drivers admitted to or suggested that they falsified records mandated by federal law to document hours spent driving and resting between legs of a transport. Federal regulations enforced by the FMCSA require truck drivers to maintain a logbook recording how time is spent during stages of a transport, otherwise know as “hours of service.” Absent certain exemptions allowed under the law, truckers are required to track hours spent driving, on duty, or resting in the sleeper berth of a truck. These laws exist to protect the public from the risk of fatigued drivers behind the wheel of vehicles that can weigh between 35,000 and 80,000 pounds.
In August 2025, SEED traveled the Midwest, visiting numerous truck stops frequented by truckers hauling cattle and pigs. Through recorded conversations with numerous drivers, it became apparent that many were openly ignoring federal law and seemed proud to share it. Below is a sample of some of the admissions:
Livestock truck driver: “I don’t even use mine, know what I mean?” . . . “It’s blank. They don’t bother you, you know?”
Livestock truck driver: ““Learn how to run two logbooks.” . . . “One that’s real (gives air quotes gesture) and one that’s real (gives air quotes gesture).”
Livestock truck driver: “So then . . . but once you get to your delivery, you have to take a 10-hour break. But you’re also on paper, so you can make it look ever how you want.”
Animal Partisan’s complaint, submitted via the National Consumer Complaint Database, alleges that the driver’s statements constitute admissions that they violated FMCSA regulations that require a driver record “duty status” for each 24-hour period. The complaint further alleges that many of the admissions violate a federal regulation that punishes drivers and trucking companies that make a “false report in connection with a duty status.” The complaint asks the FMCSA to impose the maximum allowable penalty of $15,846 on each of the drivers and their respective trucking companies. The FMCSA takes “hours of service” laws seriously and regularly fines trucking companies who violate these regulations.
Animal Partisan is very familiar with the consequences suffered by animals when truck drivers disobey traffic laws and prioritize profit over animal welfare. As depicted in the video below, Animal Partisan has regularly been exposing the aftermath of violent truck crashes, including animals killed, maimed, pinned beneath wreckage, or abused by first responders.
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