Tail biting is a serious welfare problem in commercial pig production that is largely preventable through environmental enrichment, genetic selection, and management improvements rather than routine tail docking.
Tail biting represents a failure of the housing environment to meet pigs' behavioural needs. The practice of routine tail docking to prevent biting treats the symptom while leaving the underlying cause - inadequate enrichment, overcrowding, nutritional imbalance, or disease - unaddressed. Tail docking itself causes acute pain and potential chronic pain from neuroma formation. The welfare-positive approach addresses root causes through enrichment provision, management, and genetics rather than removing the vulnerable body part. Systems that have eliminated tail biting without docking demonstrate this is achievable at commercial scale.