Surgical castration of male piglets causes significant pain and is routinely performed without anaesthesia in many countries; EU agreements to phase it out have made slow progress.
Surgical castration of piglets without anaesthesia is one of the most straightforward welfare improvements available in pig production: the procedure clearly causes pain, effective pain relief is available, and alternatives exist that avoid the procedure entirely. The slow progress toward the EU commitment demonstrates how voluntary industry commitments without regulatory enforcement fail to deliver welfare improvements against commercial cost pressures.