Tail biting is a serious welfare problem in intensive pig farming. Understanding its causes and evidence-based prevention strategies can dramatically reduce its incidence.
Tail biting represents a welfare failure at multiple levels: it causes direct pain and injury to victims, results in group-level stress and distress, and the standard "solution" of tail docking is itself painful. The root cause of tail biting is not inherent pig aggression but the frustration of natural rooting and foraging behaviour in barren environments. Pigs in systems with adequate space, manipulable materials and good air quality rarely develop tail biting problems. Sweden demonstrates that tail docking can be nearly eliminated with appropriate management — Swedish farms provide straw bedding and other enrichment as standard. The EU prohibition on routine docking, if properly enforced, would require farms to address environmental causes rather than simply removing the symptom.