Dehorning of cattle causes significant acute and chronic pain; alternatives including polled genetics and improved pain management can substantially reduce this welfare harm.
Cattle dehorning welfare has a clear near-term and long-term solution. Near-term: mandatory local anaesthesia and post-procedural analgesia for all disbudding and dehorning procedures. Long-term: transition to polled genetics that eliminates the need for the procedure entirely. Both solutions are available; the barriers are economic inertia and lack of regulatory requirement in many jurisdictions. The near-term pain management solution adds modest cost; the long-term genetic solution eliminates the cost entirely while delivering continuous welfare improvement across the cattle population.