Sheep are stoic animals that mask pain effectively, leading to widespread undertreatment of painful conditions including footrot, dystocia, and post-surgical pain in farming systems.
Sheep stoicism — an evolutionary adaptation that conceals pain from predators — works against them in welfare terms, as farm workers may not recognize that an animal is suffering. Advances in pain assessment using facial expression coding have improved detection, but translation into farm practice is slow. Regulatory requirements for analgesia during routine procedures remain inconsistent across countries. Lamb castration and docking under local anesthesia is achievable at minimal cost and should be the baseline standard rather than the exception in high-welfare systems.