The welfare science of pain management during routine livestock husbandry procedures and the gap between best practice and common practice.
The absence of analgesia in routine livestock husbandry procedures is one of the most pervasive and yet most addressable welfare failures in animal agriculture. The science is clear: these procedures cause pain that can be substantially reduced by locally anesthetics and NSAIDs. The interventions are available, affordable, and increasingly required by progressive regulatory frameworks. The remaining barriers are habit and the absence of universal regulatory requirements — barriers that welfare advocates, veterinarians, and progressive producers are working to overcome simultaneously. The welfare goal is simple: no animal should undergo a pain-causing procedure without appropriate pain management, regardless of whether that procedure is routine.