Routine veterinary procedures in cattle including castration, dehorning, and pregnancy diagnosis cause significant pain that is manageable through appropriate analgesia and technique improvements.
Cattle undergoing routine veterinary procedures without appropriate analgesia experience significant preventable pain. Local anesthetic and NSAID combinations now available provide excellent pain control for castration, dehorning, and other procedures at minimal cost relative to animal value. The welfare argument for mandatory pain relief at these procedures is compelling and supported by veterinary consensus. Regulatory requirements in some jurisdictions have successfully driven analgesic adoption — extending these requirements to additional countries and procedures would produce substantial welfare improvements.