WASHINGTON — Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., has been advocating for more humane transportation of horses by livestock haulers since 2008, but he believes he finally has the support to get legislation addressing the issue through Congress.
Cohen and Reps. Dina Titus, D-Nev., and Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., reintroduced on Thursday the Horse Transportation Safety Act, a bill to ban the transportation of horses across state lines in double-deck trucks or trailers containing two or more levels stacked on top of one another.
“Double-deck trailers do not provide adequate headroom for adult horses, and accidents involving double-deck trailers are a terrifying reminder that the practice is also dangerous to the driving public,” Cohen said in a press statement.
“I look forward to seeing this measure move forward as it did last year and be signed into law. Transporting horses can be precarious even under the best circumstances, and we should not compound the risks with unsafe double-deck trailers.”
Double-deck trailers can accommodate livestock such as cattle and hogs but usually do not provide enough headroom for horses to stand upright.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued rules in 2001 prohibiting livestock haulers from using double-deck trailers to carry horses to slaughter. “The purpose of the regulations is to establish minimum standards to ensure the humane movement of equines to slaughtering facilities via commercial transportation,” USDA stated in the rule.
However, the rules did not ban the commercial transport of horses in double-deck trailers over long distances to feedlots, for example, or to other interim points before they are transferred to single trailers for final transportation to a slaughter facility. Cohen’s bill would close this loophole.
“Transporting horses in stacked double-deck trailers isn’t just inhumane – it’s dangerous,” Fitzpatrick said. “These trailers were never designed for animals of this size and using them puts both horses and drivers at serious risk. This bill is long overdue, and it’s time to get it across the finish line.”
The bill made it through the House twice, in 2020 and 2022, when it was attached to larger pieces of legislation, but has yet to get through the Senate.
If passed, the measure would likely affect only a small sector of trucking, based on owner-operator data.
In a 2022 member survey conducted by the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association Foundation, only 1% of respondents indicated that livestock trailers were the type of trailers they primarily pull.
FreightWaves has reached out to OOIDA for comment.
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