Pain recognition and management in animals has advanced dramatically in recent decades, creating both opportunities for welfare improvement and obligations to implement best practice.
The development of objective, validated pain assessment tools for multiple species represents a landmark achievement in animal welfare science. For the first time, clinicians and researchers have tools to systematically identify pain in animals who cannot communicate their experience through language. This scientific advance creates a corresponding ethical obligation: if we can now identify animal pain reliably, failing to use this knowledge to guide treatment is an ethical failure. Veterinary curricula are incorporating grimace scale training, and research ethics committees are using validated pain endpoints to improve refinement. Cultural change in veterinary practice toward more proactive pain management is occurring but unevenly distributed.