Tail biting in pigs is a symptom of poor welfare that can be eliminated through environmental improvement rather than tail docking.
Tail biting is not an inevitable feature of pig farming — it is a symptom of environments that fail to meet pig behavioral needs. When pigs cannot root, explore, or exercise their oral investigative behaviors in substrate, they redirect these drives toward their pen-mates. The solution is environmental design, not mutilation. Research consistently shows that providing even modest amounts of rooting material — straw, hemp, newspaper, wooden sticks — dramatically reduces tail biting incidence. Sweden's achievement of near-zero tail docking rates through enrichment mandates proves this is viable at commercial scale. The persistence of tail docking as the primary "solution" to tail biting reflects economic inertia rather than evidence-based farming practice.