Many routine livestock veterinary procedures including dehorning, castration, and branding are performed without adequate pain relief, causing preventable suffering on farms worldwide.
The normalisation of painful procedures without adequate analgesia in livestock production reflects a historical attitude that farm animal pain is less significant than companion animal pain and that practical constraints justify omitting pain relief. Both assumptions are ethically untenable in light of current animal sentience science. The veterinary knowledge, pharmacological tools, and practical techniques for providing effective pain relief for routine procedures exist and are accessible. The barrier is primarily economic and cultural — adding cost and time to established practices that farmers have always done without pain relief. Regulatory mandates for pain relief, combined with farmer education and economic incentives, can normalise analgesia as a basic welfare standard rather than an optional extra.