Velvet antler removal from farmed deer without adequate anaesthesia causes significant acute pain, yet is practiced widely for the lucrative traditional medicine market without consistent welfare requirements.
Velvet antler removal from conscious deer causes intense acute pain during the procedure as growing antler is richly innervated. The international variation in anaesthesia requirements means that the same procedure causes vastly different welfare impacts depending on jurisdiction. The absence of proven medicinal value makes the welfare cost of unanaesthetised removal particularly difficult to justify.