Dehorning is performed on millions of cattle annually to reduce injury risk in groups. The procedure causes significant pain and welfare improvements through pain management and polled breeding are achievable.
Dehorning without pain management causes easily preventable suffering in millions of cattle annually. The procedure involves cutting through bone, nerve, and blood vessel, creating a wound that causes acute agony and days of post-operative pain if not managed. The tools to eliminate this suffering are available, affordable at scale, and scientifically validated — local anesthesia and anti-inflammatory drugs together provide effective pain control. The barrier is primarily regulatory and cultural. Where pain management for dehorning is legally required, uptake is high; where it is merely recommended, uptake is low. Extending legal requirements for pain management to dehorning is one of the clearest and most tractable regulatory improvements available in farm animal welfare. Simultaneously, accelerating the adoption of polled genetics can phase out the need for the procedure entirely.