Tail biting in pigs causes significant welfare harm. While tail docking is widely used to prevent biting, addressing its root causes through enrichment and management is the welfare-superior approach.
Routine tail docking is a painful procedure performed on hundreds of millions of piglets annually as a substitute for addressing the underlying causes of tail biting. It is the agricultural equivalent of treating symptoms rather than disease: by removing most of the tail, the severity of biting injuries is reduced, but the motivation to bite — rooted in frustration, boredom, and stress — remains. The tail docking approach preserves the production conditions that cause tail biting while preventing the most visible consequence. The alternative — providing enrichment, appropriate stocking density, good ventilation, and ad libitum rooting material — prevents tail biting at the motivational level, protecting both the physical welfare of undocked pigs and the psychological welfare of the whole group. Countries that have achieved routine docking elimination demonstrate that this is practically achievable.