Routine piglet mutilations including tail docking, tooth clipping, and castration without anesthesia remain common in commercial pig farming despite welfare regulations.
Tail docking, tooth clipping, and castration are performed routinely to manage welfare problems (tail biting, teat competition, boar taint) that would not occur in systems with sufficient space and enrichment. They treat symptoms of poor housing rather than causes. Abolishing these procedures requires improving underlying conditions rather than simply banning the mutilations.