• Live animal transport has always been one of air cargo’s most specialised segments. What is changing now is not the sensitivity of the cargo — but the regulatory intensity surrounding it.
• At IATA’s recent LAR Verify webinar, industry speakers made clear that live animal shipments are increasingly defined by compliance complexity, regulatory volatility and cross-border coordination.
• The launch of LAR Verify was positioned not simply as a digital tool, but as a structural response to that reality.

As Susan Draca, Assistant Director Customer Engagement at IATA, outlined, the sector is facing accelerating regulatory shifts. She pointed to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2024 rule change on dog imports, introduced with only a three-month implementation window. The message was clear: the industry must be able to react quickly when governments act.

From manual interpretation to real-time regulatory intelligence

For airlines, the operational burden of live animal transport has long been tied to the complexity of the IATA Live Animals Regulations (LAR). Shafiq Amer-Ouali, Solutions Engineering Manager at Air Canada, described the segment as “a complex solution… subject to many different regulations and many different requirements.”

He also highlighted the limitations of working manually through regulatory texts, noting that extracting the right information “can take a bit of effort” and may be “time consuming and labor intensive.”

The shift now is toward automation of that interpretation process.

Tahir Hasnain, Product Manager Cargo Solutions at IATA, framed the rationale clearly: “Transporting live animals should not involve guesswork.” Instead of manually searching through state and operator variations, LAR Verify provides “instant shipment specific compliance guidance,” consolidating species data, CITES classification, container requirements and documentation rules into a single search output.

The broader implication is significant. Compliance is moving upstream into booking workflows and cargo management systems via API integration. Rather than being checked at acceptance, regulatory validation can become embedded into operational systems.

Enforcement, biosecurity and wildlife protection

The regulatory dimension extends beyond airline operations. Salehin Khan, Programme Management Officer at CITES, underscored the importance of species identification and documentation accuracy. LAR Verify, he noted, confirms whether a species is CITES-listed and clarifies permit requirements — a step that reduces the risk of “illegal trade or incorrectly uninvitentally or incorrectly documented transport.”

This matters in a geopolitical context where wildlife trafficking, disease control and biosecurity are under increasing scrutiny. Airlines are not merely carriers; they are compliance gatekeepers within a global regulatory chain.

Tristan Bradfield, Consultant Manager and Animal Care SME at the City of London, described a successful operation as one requiring “accurate regulatory knowledge, proper documentation, correct container and handling standards, coordinated workflows and real time updates.” Digital validation, he argued, reduces errors, improves efficiency and enhances animal welfare outcomes.

The webinar also revealed early pilot data. According to Hasnain, participating organisations reported saving “up to 70% of the time” compared with manual information retrieval. Compliance improved by 30%, and operators saw reductions in acceptance delays, particularly for complex shipments.

Given that live animal acceptance can consume several hours in more complicated cases, these gains are not marginal. They directly affect manpower allocation, turnaround times and customer experience.

A template for specialised cargo?

The deeper story emerging from the webinar is that live animal transport is becoming a model case for embedded regulatory automation.

As regulatory frameworks tighten and public scrutiny grows, specialised cargo verticals — from pharma to endangered species — may require similar digital compliance layers. Live animal logistics, once treated as a niche operational discipline, is evolving into a compliance-intensive risk domain.

If automation can successfully reduce error rates in one of air cargo’s most sensitive segments, it may signal a broader transformation in how the industry manages regulatory complexity in the years ahead.

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