ATTITUDES ARE CHANGING

PAIN MANAGEMENT IN FARMED ANIMALS

Pain or distress caused by “generally accepted management practices” in animal agriculture is specifically excluded from consideration under Canadian animal welfare legislation. This exemption protects producers when conducting necessary management procedures.

Increasingly, generally accepted management practices are being scrutinized for their impacts on animal well being. Questions are being raised about the necessity of certain practices, and if necessary, are there less painful ways of doing them? How do we really know when an animal is in pain? How severe and prolonged does pain have to be before we must relieve it?

How do we really know when an animal is in pain? How severe and prolonged does pain have to be before we must relieve it?

In Norway, pigs can now only be castrated by veterinarians using appropriate analgesia. Pig castration will be banned in Norway beginning in 2009. Germany has revised it’s Animal Welfare Act, requiring that “painful operations may not be carried out on vertebrates without anesthetic [non-official translation].” There are some exceptions for management practices like castration, tail-docking, dehorning, tooth grinding and identification when animals are very young.

Attitudes are changing. In Canada, Dr. John Church, Animal Welfare Specialist for Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development says, “to deliberately cause pain to an animal without pain control is now considered unethical.”

Dr. David Fraser, a world-renowned animal welfare researcher says, “I think it is in the industry's interests to develop alternatives wherever possible. Examples would be development and testing of immunocastration to replace surgical castration or use of polled genetics to replace dehorning. Where alternatives are not possible, I think it is in the industry's interests to use pain management when feasible.”

Some producers and their veterinarians are using pain control. Dr. Duane Landals, Alberta Veterinary Medical Association Registrar and Vice-President CVMA, says, “In our practice we routinely use pain relief for dehorning, castration and branding (in horses). The procedures are much easier on both the animal and operator with appropriate pain relief.”

Measures for pain control are standard practice during elk velvet antler removal. Dr. Fraser believes the Elk industry’s Velvet Antler Removal Certification Program serves as a useful model to other animal industries. “Producers and vets enter into an agreement whereby producers are trained and authorized to use the correct products in the correct way. This way the industry cannot be accused of withholding available pain management purely for reasons of economics.”

With a veterinary-client relationship, producers can access prescription non-narcotic pain relievers according to Dr. Landals. Costs are generally low.

The display of pain varies between species — observers must be aware of key, and sometimes subtle, signs. Behavioral indicators of pain can be overlooked because we expect animals to express pain in a manner similar to us, when they often do not.

Dr. Paul Flecknell a world-renowned expert and leading researcher on animal pain at the University of Newcastle, England, says, “If we cannot assess pain, we cannot manage it effectively, and it is likely that a failure to appreciate the severity of pain in individual animals is the single most important factor in the apparent under use of analgesics.”

More research is needed on pain identification, effective pain relief and dosage requirements. Drug residues and appropriate withdrawal times are other necessary components of safe and effective pain control according to Dr. Landals.

Understanding pain and its Relevance to Animals, a paper by Dr. Church (AFAC Reports)