The transport of live animals has become somewhat of a hot topic in the field of animal welfare, since one minor inconvenience in the transport process can be detrimental to the wellbeing of the animals concerned. This paper identifies the weaknesses in European animal transport law based on the recommendations of the European Parliament to the European Commission and general criticism, each “loophole” building a subchapter. This thesis is divided into three main chapters. The first chapter serves as an overview, explaining the regulatory facts, the scope of application of Regulation (EC) No 1/2005 and recent legal developments in this field. In the second chapter, the general loopholes found will be discussed in detail by first stating the problem and elaborating possible means for improvement, especially the recommendations by the European Parliament and the regulatory changes foreseen in the new legislative proposal of the European Commission. The last chapter will study the weaknesses of animal transport by sea, and the recommendations of the European Parliament and the proposal of the European Commission will be dealt with here as well. In its recommendations, the European Parliament dealt with the problems in detail to find solutions, but the European Commission did not always address these in the proposal. In particular, the proposals regarding the transport by sea are rather unsatisfactory when compared to the solutions suggested by the European Parliament.