Can Animals Feel Pain? Pain Recognition in Livestock
The belief that animals don’t feel pain is a surprisingly common myth.

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Can animals feel pain like humans? Learn about pain recognition in livestock and animal pain signs to ensure proper care and management.
by Sherri Talbot
I once had a friend who used to say of his chickens, “The first sign that a chicken is sick, is that they die.” While not completely accurate, it’s true that livestock can be difficult to diagnose. Since wild predators often target injured or ill prey, hiding weakness is a common defense. This led to the belief that animals don’t feel pain. There remain ethical questions about whether or not animals experience pain in the same way humans do1 and how that might affect the way they’re handled.
Do Animals Feel Pain Like Humans?
Studies on pain management in laboratory animals suggest that researchers without proper training will often misinterpret pain signals2. If we look at symptoms of pain from a human perspective, we’d expect that an animal in pain might cry out when the injury is strained. We might expect to see limping or lack of movement when a leg injury is suspected or would look for other behaviors we associate with a pain reaction3. One study stated that pain can be diagnosed in several ways, including “… physical examination of pain through palpation of body parts: press on the sore area and the human or non-human patient may vocalize, tense up, or attempt to move4.”

However, evidence shows that many of these expected factors often aren’t found in animals suffering from pain. One study by Kongora, Singh, Venkatachalam, and Chambers reported, “It can be difficult to assess subtle signs of pain in prey animals that do not manifest overt signs of pain.5” Because the symptoms of pain often don’t meet our expectations, this leads many people to believe that animals feel little or no pain in situations where science has shown they do. One study from 1998 actually showed that not even all anesthesia options protect animals from pain. Even unconscious during a surgery, heart rate and other vitals suggest they still feel distress during the procedure6.
Pain Recognition in Livestock
One example of this is that many farmers who practice disbudding on goats say that the kids feel little pain after the procedure. They base this on the expression of acute behavioral changes when the disbudding initially takes place, such as crying out, pulling away, and acting distressed7. Since these behaviors cease shortly after the procedure, the assumption is that the pain has also ceased.
Instead, the symptoms become more subtle, and often go unnoticed. Scientific studies measuring symptoms of pain show that disbudded kids actually continue to feel pain for days or weeks after disbudding8. Because of this divergence between the public’s view of pain in goat kids and scientific evidence, in the U.K., kids must be disbudded with proper pain management by licensed vets9.

Prey animals may show even less symptoms with predators in the immediate vicinity. A study done with sheep showed that ewes will tolerate more pressure and show fewer signs of pain when there’s an unfamiliar dog nearby. The study theorized that the animals may actually feel less pain when under stress — that animals can actually suppress their pain for short periods of time. The researchers were uncertain whether this was a conscious choice on the part of the subjects or not, or even whether this was actually a suppression of pain, or suppression of signs of pain10.
Animal Pain Signs
So, how do we determine whether or not our animals need care? In laboratory environments, scientists have the ability to test chemical changes, such as levels of cortisol, to prove whether or not an animal is in distress. They can also measure temperature, heart rate, and other biometrics in order to determine changes from the norm11. Farmers have no such access to chemical testing, and it’s unlikely that a farmer with a large number of animals will be able to check the vital signs of every animal regularly to determine if there’s an issue. Therefore, they must look for subtle symptoms through negative presentation, or for other unexpected behaviors.
Positive symptoms of illness or injury are the addition of a trait not normally seen: A cough, vocalization, head shaking, or other new behavior. Many of these symptoms don’t present until the issue is in extreme stages. A negative presentation, however, is the absence of a behavior we would expect to see: Stops eating, drinking, grooming, or engaging with its peers12.

In other cases, temperament changes may be observed, such as an uncharacteristic aggression, agitation, or depression13. In small animals, such as chickens or rabbits, hiding is common when the animal feels poorly14. Once an animal is identified as having a change in behavior, they can then be isolated, vitals can be measured, and the animal can be diagnosed and cared for individually. However, these behavioral changes are often overlooked, resulting in farmers missing signs of distress.
Studies on how animals feel pain continue to lead us to a better understanding of how to diagnose issues and treat those in our care more ethically. Studies on calf disbudding have led to some countries requiring pain medications or veterinary care in order to reduce the calf’s discomfort15. Research on rabbits have shown that severe pain can influence a rabbit’s ability to heal from illness or injury16, which has influenced vet care. Studies in laboratory animals lead to ever-changing practices to better understand and care for them17. New information on pain in animals has led to dog shows removing the requirement for ear and tail cropping to show certain breeds, and made declawing cats far less common. Hopefully, greater understanding of how animals feel and present pain will allow us to provide even better care, in the future.
References
- 9 BVA and Goat Veterinary Society policy position on goat kid disbudding and analgesia. (2018). British Veterinary Association. Vol 1.
- 2, 4, 10, 12 Carbone, Larry (2020). Do “Prey Species” Hide Their Pain? Implications for Ethical Care and Use of Laboratory Animals. Journal of Applied Animal Ethics Research.
- 1, 11, 17 Hepple, Sir Bob; Peckham, Catherine; Baldwin, Tom; Brazier, Margot; et al (2005). The Ethics of Research in Animals. London: Nuffield Counsil on Bioethics.
- 5, 7, 8 Kongara, K.; Singh, P.; Venkatachalam, D.; Chambers, J.P. (2023) Pain Assessment in Goat Kids: Focus on Disbudding.
- 15 Marquette, Gabriela A., Ronan, Stephanie & Earley, Bernadette. (2023). Calf Disbudding – animal welfare considerations. Journal of Applied Animal Research.Vol 51(1) p616-623.
- 3, 14, 16 Mayer, Jörg. (2007). Use of behavior analysis to recognize pain in small mammals. Lab Animal. Vol 36(6).
- 6, 13 Short, Charles E.. (1998). Fundamentals of pain perception in animals. Applied Animal Behavioral Science. Vol 59 p 125-133.
Sherri Talbot is the co-owner and operator of Saffron and Honey Homestead in Windsor, Maine. She raises endangered, heritage-breed livestock and hopes someday to make education and writing on conservation breeding her full-time job.
Originally published in the May/June 2024 issue of Countryside and Small Stock Journal and regularly vetted for accuracy.