Cows in Austria

Mutilations of Cattle

Cattle are adapted to the farm environment, instead of vice versa

27.11.2024

Farmed cattle are subjected to several painful interventions. These interventions are mostly carried out without anaesthesia and pain relief. Why? For more economic efficiency and thus cheaper animal-derived products.

Mutilations of cattle
Tail Docking
Branding
Castration Without Anaesthesia
Nose Rings, Anti-suckling Devices
Ear Tagging, Ear Notching, Tattooing
Dehorning, Disbudding
Cattle with docked tailCattle with nose ring on a transport truckA group of cattle with ear tagsDehorned calves
Mutilation of cattle
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Dehorned calvesA group of cattle with ear tagsCattle with nose ring on a transport truckCattle with docked tail

Dehorning, disbudding

  • Purpose: To prevent animals injuring each other or the staff in a restricted space. In a restricted space horned animals could bloodily cut and injure each other or staff with horn tips in the cause of aversive reactions with head buts (head movements, with or without physical contact are normal social behaviour in cattle – defensive or agonistic behaviour for cows is part of their daily herd life and normal behavioural repertoire).
  • Procedure:
    • Disbudding/dehorning: Before the horns erupt, the horn buds of calves are destroyed mainly thermally (burnt out with a cautery iron), but also chemically (caustic paste) or surgically (cut out with a spoon). Because the horn buds are rich in nerves, disbudding is very painful – and yet it is often done without anaesthesia or any pain relief, causing severe pain and distress during the procedure as well as afterwards1,2.
    • Dehorning: The already existing horns are removed (with saw or pliers). This procedure is not as common as disbudding as it is even more invasive, painful and dangerous for the animals.
  • Information:
    • Disbudding/dehorning is a supposed solution for inappropriate animal husbandry (poor management, housing, handling, human-animal relationship), which will not reduce agonistic reactions, but change the type of injury from open wounds by horns to subcutaneous traumas in deeper muscle areas or bones caused by the head skulls.
    • The general risk for injuries and social stress can be minimised by providing more space, adapting the barn construction, better management, and establishing a good human-animal relationship.
  • FOUR PAWS demands: No dehorning. If dehorning is carried out, this must be done under anaesthesia administered by a veterinarian and with follow-up treatment against pain through non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).

Tail docking

  • Purpose:
    • For beef cattle: To avoid tail necrosis in animals housed in narrow stalls with fully slatted floors. Tail necrosis begins with changes to the skin at the end of the tail and damage to the tail. This can lead to inflammation which may move into the tail vertebrae and can spread to the spinal cord or into the limbs.
    • For dairy cows: To prevent the milker being obstructed by a dirty tail during milking and udders may be cleaner.
  • Procedure: The tail or a part of the tail is removed by using a rubber ring (cutting off the blood circulation, causing the tail to fall off after 4-6 weeks), a hot docking iron, or a knife. Even though many studies have shown that all tail docking methods cause significant pain3, the animals are generally not provided with adequate pain relief or anaesthesia during the procedure nor afterwards. Furthermore, tail docking could have long-term consequences such as chronic pain4.
  • Information: Apart from being very painful, tail docking is not solving the main problem. Apart from crowded housing on fully slatted floors (that cause tail lesions), tail tip necrosis is also caused by high density in the stables, climate, lack of roughage and poor hygiene. All these measures should be optimised5 and no tails should be docked.
  • FOUR PAWS demands: A general ban on tail docking in all countries. Appropriate farming methods do not require the amputation of body parts.

Branding

  • Purpose: Identification
  • Procedure: 
    • Hot iron branding: A scorching iron inflicts high degree burns to the skin and leaves a scar.
    • Freeze branding: An iron immersed in liquid nitrogen causes the destruction of the skin and leaves a white scar.
      Both methods are very painful and mostly done without anaesthesia and pain relief. The animals show signs of pain for up to two months.6
  • FOUR PAWS demands: A ban of painful and mutilating identification methods.

Ear tagging, ear notching, tattooing

  • Purpose: Identification
  • Procedure: 
    • Ear tagging: the ears are pierced to fix ear tags, causing pain to the animals.6,7
    • Ear notching: pliers are used to remove a small piece of the ear.
    • Tattooing: penetrating the animal’s skin with a sharp needled tool to insert ink under the skin.
      All methods are causing pain8 and are mostly done without anaesthesia and pain relief.
  • FOUR PAWS demands: A ban of painful and mutilating identification methods.

Castration without anaesthesia and pain relief (common practice in males)

  • Purpose: To curb the fertility of male animals (so that mixed sex keeping is possible), making them less aggressive and easier to manage. They also grow slower and develop a marbled fat composition in their muscles which makes the meat more economically valuable.
  • Procedure: There are several ways castration can be performed:
    • The most common way in cattle is castration with clamp castrators (Burdizzo) that crushes the spermatic cords and causes swelling and inflammation for at least about two weeks. Another option for cattle castration is surgical (knife/scalpel) or castration with the use of a rubber ring, which obstructs blood supply, causing atrophy within 4 to 6 weeks, accompanied with possible chronic inflammation, sepsis, and pain5,9.
    • All these methods cause severe pain and have intermediate duration, depending on the method. And yet they are mostly done without anaesthesia and (sufficient) pain relief.
  • Information: Nowadays these options are available that make the suffering of calves during castration unnecessary and are acceptable from an animal welfare point of view: vaccination that prevents the release of male hormones (immunocastration) or surgical castration (scalpel) by a vet with anaesthesia and multi-modal pain relief.
  • FOUR PAWS demands: The castration of (male) cattle must be carried out by a vet, with anaesthesia and multi-modal pain relief. No rubber ring! Alternatives to castration should preferably be used like vaccination (immunocastration) or fattening of bulls.

Nose rings, anti-suckling devices

  • Purpose: In breeding bulls to increase security of handling; this is done by a skilled person with local anaesthesia and causes low level of pain and stress if properly operated. 
  • Anti-suckling devices: Mouth-nose rings (inserted inside the nose and perforates the oral cavity as well) and certain tongue surgeries against inter-suckling or tongue-playing; they cause a change of function and are not acceptable (prohibited throughout the EU) . Plastic suckler rings (often yellow with spikes on them) without perforation (e.g. of nasal septum): not a mutilation, should not be done too tight, but even if loose, it causes irritations in the nose septum of the animal. They point out that a systemic problem on the farm – regarding management of young stock – exists.
  • FOUR PAWS demands: A general ban on the use of nose rings and painful or irritating anti-suckling devices.  
    It is essential to not only treat the symptoms, but to eliminate their causes – the husbandry system should be adapted to the animal, not the other way around! Mother-bonded rearing would be a good alternative where these problems wouldn’t occur.

FOUR PAWS demands regarding mutilations of cattle

  • No dehorning. If dehorning is carried out, this must be done under anaesthesia administered by a veterinarian and with follow-up treatment against pain through non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs).
  • A general ban on tail docking in all countries. Appropriate farming methods do not require the amputation of body parts.  
  • A ban of painful and mutilating identification methods. 
  • The castration of (male) cattle must be carried out by a vet, with anaesthesia and multi-modal pain relief. No rubber ring! Alternatives to castration should preferably be used like vaccination (immunocastration) or fattening of bulls. 
  • A general ban on the use of nose rings and painful or irritating anti-suckling devices.  
    It is essential to not only treat the symptoms, but to eliminate their causes – the husbandry system should be adapted to the animal, not the other way around! Mother-bonded rearing would be a good alternative where these problems wouldn’t occur.
Cow in a field

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Source

1. Costa JHC, Cantor MC, Adderley NA, Neave HW. Key animal welfare issues in commercially raised dairy calves: social environment, nutrition, and painful procedures. Canadian Journal of Animal Science. 2019;99(4):649–660. doi:10.1139/cjas-2019-0031 
2. Stafford KJ, Mellor DJ. Dehorning and disbudding distress and its alleviation in calves. Veterinary Journal. 2005;169(3):337–349. doi:10/bh7tfp 
3. Sutherland MA, Tucker CB. The long and short of it: A review of tail docking in farm animals. Applied Animal Behaviour Science. 2011;135(3):179–191. doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2011.10.015 
4. Eicher SD, Cheng HW, Sorrells AD, Schutz MM. Short Communication: Behavioral and Physiological Indicators of Sensitivity or Chronic Pain Following Tail Docking. Journal of Dairy Science. 2006;89(8):3047–3051. doi:10.3168/jds.S0022-0302(06)72578-4
5. EFSA Panel on Animal Health and Welfare (AHAW). Scientific Opinion on the welfare of cattle kept for beef production and the welfare in intensive calf farming systems. EFSA Journal. 2012;10(5):2669. doi:10.2903/j.efsa.2012.2669 
6. Steagall PV, Bustamante H, Johnson CB, Turner PV. Pain management in farm animals: focus on cattle, sheep and pigs. Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI. 2021;11(6):1483. doi:10.3390/ani11061483
7. Schnaider MA, Heidemann MS, Silva AHP, Taconeli CA, Molento CFM. Vocalization and other behaviors indicating pain in beef calves during the ear tagging procedure. Journal of Veterinary Behavior. 2022;47:93–98. doi:10.1016/j.jveb.2021.10.005 
8. Steagall PV, Bustamante H, Johnson CB, Turner PV. Pain management in farm animals: focus on cattle, sheep and pigs. Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI. 2021;11(6):1483. doi:10.3390/ani11061483 
9. Bergamasco L, Edwards-Callaway LN, Bello NM, Mijares SH, Cull CA, Rugan S, Mosher RA, Gehring R, Coetzee JF. Unmitigated Surgical Castration in Calves of Different Ages: Cortisol Concentrations, Heart Rate Variability, and Infrared Thermography Findings. Animals. 2021;11(9):2719. doi:10.3390/ani110927191

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