Twenty-eight Hour Law Law and Legal Definition
Twenty-eight hour law is one of the nation's oldest animal protection laws and one of the few federal statutes that applies to farmed animals. It is a federal statute, applicable to the interstate transportation of livestock. It provides that a carrier shall not keep livestock confined in cars for a period longer than twenty-eight consecutive hours without unloading for rest, water, and feeding, for a period of at least five hours, unless the unloading is prevented by storm or other unavoidable causes which cannot be anticipated or avoided by the exercise of due diligence and foresight, but permitting the extension of the period of permissible confinement to thirty-six hours upon the written consent of the owner or person in charge of the shipment.
