By Peter Stevenson, Chief Policy Advisor at Compassion in World Farming

Pigs are the protagonists of a scandalous story that sees the European Commission and the Member States failing to enforce animal welfare laws that have been in place for over thirty years.

Two connected provisions in the Pigs Directive ban the routine tail docking of pigs and require these animals to be given enrichment materials such as straw, hay, wood, sawdust so that they can engage in their natural rooting and exploring behaviours.

I was delighted when Animal Welfare Commissioner Oliver Várhelyi  announced that enforcement of animal welfare rules “should be improved drastically”, reiterating that he was “willing to engage personally” with any case going against current rules.

Despite that, a letter by 34 animal protection organisations urging him to take effective measures to secure enforcement of the laws on tail docking and enrichment was met by deafening silence. His failure to even acknowledge our calls does not sit well with the promised ‘personal engagement’.

Why do pigs resort to biting each other’s tails?

Scientific research shows that in natural conditions pigs are highly active, spending 75% of their day rooting, foraging and exploring. Such activities are impossible in the barren world of intensive farming.

Bored and frustrated, they turn to the only other ‘thing’ in their barren, crowded pens: the tails of other pigs. Desperate for something to do, they begin to chew these tails – and chewing can escalate into biting.

To prevent this, farmers dock – slice off – part of the tail.

However, science has been clear for many years: the right way to prevent tail biting is not to dock the tails but rather to keep the pigs in good conditions. Indeed, pigs living in a natural environment do not tend to tail-bite.

Protection of pigs requires true implementation

The ban on routine tail docking should be enforced both because docking is a painful practice nearly always carried out without any pain relief and because allowing farmers to keep on tail docking means they can continue to factory farm pigs, keeping these lively young creatures in crowded, barren, stressful conditions. If the ban was enforced farmers would, in order to prevent tail biting, have to greatly improve the conditions in which pigs are kept such as giving them more space and effective enrichment such as straw.

Indeed, if pigs have intact curly tails – neither docked nor bitten – it’s a sure sign that they are being kept in good conditions. A report prepared for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) concludes:

An intact curly tail may well be the single most important welfare indicator for growing pigs [...and] stands for high-quality management and respect for the integrity of the pig.

The suffering of pigs is endemic

The scale of the problem is immense. In 2021, the Commission shockingly revealed that tail-docking of pigs is a routine practice in approximately 150 million pigs every year. The EU’s executive made it clear that with the exception of Finland and Sweden, most EU countries did not comply with the ban and did not provide adequate enrichment materials.

Sadly, little has changed since then.

While the Pigs Directive requires pigs to be given access to a sufficient quantity of material to enable proper investigation and manipulation activities, many farmers simply place metal chains or plastic toys in the pens. The Commission categorises these as being of only ‘marginal interest’ for pigs and, if provided on their own, as not complying with the legal requirement to provide enrichment.

Farming pigs without slicing off their tail is possible

Some farmers argue that it is not possible to keep pigs without routine tail docking. But farmers in Finland and Sweden manage to do so as do those in Norway and Switzerland.
EFSA has concluded that tail docking ‘is not necessary if husbandry practices and management are appropriate,’ echoed by calls from the Federation of Veterinarians of Europe to move away from tail docking.

Most fattening pigs are slaughtered at 5-6 months of age so they have all the energy and appetite for life of young mammals. In his book The Whole Hog, Lyall Watson wrote: "I know of no other animals that are more consistently curious, more willing to explore new experiences, more ready to meet the world with open-mouthed enthusiasm.  Pigs are incurable optimists and get a big kick out of just being." And yet in the EU most pigs are – unlawfully – confined in barren pens with no effective enrichment and - again unlawfully – routinely tail docked.

Urgent action needed from the Commission

Over the years, the Commission has taken several steps to try to achieve compliance with these laws, but in the end these have not been effective.

As a variety of stakeholders gets together today to discuss pig welfare in the context of the Commission's Platform on Animal Welfare, the Commission must now redouble its efforts to ensure these creatures are treated in the right way. On the one hand, this should include bringing infringement procedures against the countries that are making no serious attempt to enforce this legislation. And on the other hand, the long-overdue review of the EU’s animal welfare legislation that the Commission is embarking on must bring about real improvement for the lives of millions of pigs and other farmed animals.

In the film The Last Pig, former pig farmer Bob Comis says that, “after 10 years of looking into thousands of pig eyes, I’ve come to understand that they’re never vacant. There’s always someone looking back at me.

These sentient creatures deserve to be properly protected through the decisive enforcement of the laws designed to safeguard them.

The best sign that pigs are well treated: an intact, curly tail