Dehorning and disbudding of cattle cause significant pain but are routinely performed without adequate anaesthesia and analgesia in many countries — a correctable welfare gap.
Disbudding and dehorning without adequate pain relief is one of the most common and most preventable welfare failures in cattle farming. The pain is real, measurable through physiological and behavioural indicators, and known to persist for at least 24 hours without treatment. The barrier to adequate pain management is not technical — local anaesthetic and NSAIDs are inexpensive, widely available, and effective — but cultural and regulatory. Farms where "it's always been done this way" without pain relief can shift to fully analgesia-supported procedures without significant cost burden. The longer-term solution — breeding polled cattle to eliminate horn growth entirely — is commercially viable and gaining traction in dairy genetics, representing a permanent welfare improvement that removes the need for any painful procedure.