Pain science has transformed our understanding of animal suffering. Advances in nociception research, behaviour analysis, and neuroimaging reveal that pain in animals is more complex, pervasive, and welfare-relevant than previously understood.
Pain science has moved from the question of whether animals feel pain to the question of how much, in what contexts, and what can be done about it. Chronic pain — pain that persists beyond tissue healing — is now recognised as a major welfare concern in farmed animals, particularly those with lameness, dental disease, or post-operative pain that is inadequately managed. The welfare case for mandatory pain relief in routine farm procedures (castration, dehorning, tail docking) is supported by decades of research. Veterinary pain management is increasingly sophisticated, but uptake on farms remains uneven. Research on analgesic effectiveness in non-human species is a growing field with direct welfare applications.