Disbudding (horn removal) of dairy goat kids causes significant acute pain that is routinely performed without adequate analgesia, making it one of the most common welfare concerns in goat production.
Goat kid disbudding represents a routine welfare compromise on virtually every dairy goat farm. The hot iron or caustic paste methods cause intense pain during the procedure and persistent pain during healing. Without analgesia, kids show vocalizations, escape attempts, and elevated cortisol responses during and after the procedure. The same analgesia protocols that are increasingly required for cattle disbudding are rarely applied to goats. Extending cattle-equivalent pain management requirements to small ruminants is a straightforward welfare improvement requiring primarily behavioral change and minor cost increases.