Accurate pain assessment in animals is foundational to welfare. Understanding how pain is recognized and measured across species helps veterinarians, farmers, and animal keepers respond appropriately.
If we cannot recognize pain in animals, we cannot treat it. Pain assessment science has advanced substantially for companion animals and laboratory animals, enabling better analgesic decisions. Farm animal pain assessment lags significantly — procedures like castration, dehorning, and lameness-causing conditions are frequently undertreated because pain is not recognized or because analgesics are seen as economically unjustifiable. Developing and validating pain assessment tools for farm animals, and requiring their use, is a high-impact welfare intervention.