Tail docking in piglets is performed to reduce tail biting, but it causes acute pain and the EU bans routine docking. Understanding the ethics and alternatives guides welfare-positive pig management.
Tail docking represents a welfare trade-off where an acute procedure is performed to prevent the welfare harm of tail biting. However, the EU ban recognises that this trade-off is ethically unacceptable when the underlying causes of tail biting - overcrowding, inadequate enrichment, poor nutrition - can be addressed directly. Intact-tail pig farming demonstrates that docking is not necessary when environmental and management conditions are appropriate. The persistence of routine docking despite its illegality reflects inadequate enforcement and insufficient investment in the management improvements that make docking unnecessary.