Dehorning causes significant acute and chronic pain in cattle. The welfare standard — local anaesthetic and NSAID analgesia — is proven, affordable, and should be universal but remains inconsistently applied.
Dehorning without analgesia represents a welfare failure that is difficult to justify when effective, inexpensive solutions are available. Cornual nerve block has been available and understood for decades — yet surveys consistently find substantial proportions of producers performing dehorning without it. The pain of dehorning without analgesia is acute and measurable; the pain of dehorning with analgesia is substantially reduced. The welfare argument is simple: if we have the technology to prevent pain and choose not to use it, we are causing avoidable suffering. Regulatory requirements for analgesia during dehorning are progressively strengthening, but voluntary uptake before regulation remains the fastest welfare improvement pathway.