Tail biting in pigs is a serious welfare problem that causes painful injuries and can escalate fatally, and while routine tail docking is widely used as a prevention measure it treats a symptom rather than the cause.
Tail biting is the most visible symptom of welfare failure in pig production and illustrates why symptom management is inferior to addressing root causes. Tail docking reduces the injury consequences of biting without addressing the frustration and boredom that drives it. EU regulations recognizing this prohibit routine docking while requiring welfare improvements to address the causes. The evidence for enrichment substrate in reducing biting is clear and the intervention is inexpensive. The persistence of tail biting as a welfare problem in EU systems despite the regulatory prohibition on docking reflects inadequate enforcement of enrichment requirements rather than absence of effective solutions.