Dehorning is one of the most painful routine procedures in cattle farming, and providing analgesia and exploring polled genetics are the two most important welfare interventions.
Dehorning without analgesia is one of the most significant ongoing welfare failures in dairy cattle production — routine practice that causes unnecessary pain in millions of animals annually. Local anesthesia is required in the EU but not federally mandated in the US, creating unnecessary suffering that is entirely preventable. Breeding toward polled genetics represents the long-term solution that eliminates the welfare issue rather than mitigating it. Consumer pressure on dairy brands to implement analgesia requirements is an effective advocacy strategy.