Dehorning is performed on millions of cattle annually to reduce injury risk, but causes significant pain that is preventable through pain relief and selective breeding for naturally hornless cattle.
Dehorning causes acute and significant pain. Research using cortisol measures, pain behavioural scoring, and wound sensitivity assessment confirms that dehorning without analgesia causes a pain response lasting 12-24 hours. The procedure is performed to prevent injuries between cattle — a genuine safety concern — but is necessitated by housing systems that confine horned cattle together. The most welfare-positive long-term solution is breeding polled cattle: selecting for the naturally hornless allele eliminates the need for the procedure entirely. In the interim, mandatory pain relief — local anaesthetic nerve block combined with NSAID anti-inflammatory — should be the minimum standard for all dehorning.