Surgical castration of male piglets is standard practice in many countries to prevent boar taint in pork, causing significant pain that is performed without analgesia in most global systems.
Pig castration represents a major preventable welfare harm embedded in production practices justified by product quality concerns. The tools to address it — immunocastration and entire male production — are available and in use in some markets. The primary barriers are consumer acceptance of taste differences in entire male pork and food service industry reluctance to change procurement specifications. A decades-long EU commitment to end non-anaesthetic castration demonstrates both the recognition of the welfare problem and the difficulty of industry-wide change without regulatory enforcement. Consumer and retailer pressure on this specific welfare issue has been shown to drive producer adoption of alternatives.