Tail docking prevents tail biting in pigs but is a surgical procedure that causes pain. Understanding why tail biting occurs and how to prevent it points toward eliminating the need for docking.
Tail docking creates an ethical paradox — a welfare harm (the painful procedure) is performed to prevent a potentially worse welfare harm (tail biting). The existence of this dilemma reflects underlying management failures: pigs in appropriately enriched, well-managed environments with appropriate stocking density rarely develop the tail-biting behaviour that docking addresses. Countries that have successfully moved to intact-tail systems have demonstrated that the combination of enrichment, genetics (breeds with calmer temperaments), lower stocking density, and good nutrition management eliminates most tail biting without docking. The EU regulatory position that docking is only a last resort reflects this evidence. The persistence of routine docking in many production systems reflects inadequate investment in the management changes that would eliminate its necessity.