Adequate pain management is a central welfare obligation in veterinary medicine that has historically been underemphasized.
Undertreated pain in animals represents a massive and largely invisible welfare failure. Animals cannot verbally report pain and often conceal it as an evolutionary survival strategy, making it easy for owners and even veterinarians to miss. Surgical procedures including spay and neuter were historically performed with inadequate or no analgesia. Farm animal procedures including castration, debeaking, and dehorning are still performed without pain relief in many contexts. Expanding access to pain assessment training and affordable analgesics is among the highest-impact welfare interventions available.