Disbudding (horn bud removal in calves) is routine in dairy farming to reduce injury to stock and handlers. It causes significant acute pain, and adequate analgesia is essential welfare practice.
Disbudding represents a welfare dilemma common in farm animal management: a painful procedure performed to prevent future welfare problems (horn injuries to animals and handlers). The ethical response is not to refuse the procedure but to perform it with maximum pain mitigation — local anesthetic and systemic NSAID together. The fact that some countries still permit disbudding without any pain relief is a regulatory failure. The long-term solution is genetic — breeding polled animals eliminates the need for disbudding entirely. Consumer preference for dairy products from polled cattle herds could accelerate this welfare-positive breeding shift.