Response of piglet to surgical castration, tail docking, ear notching and teeth clipping

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Despite the gentle manner in which these procedures were applied by an experienced stockman the piglet initially still shows a hunched up standing posture with trembling but quickly goes and lies with his litter mates.  However if you look closely you will notice that he is still trembling despite lying in an apparently normal posture.  One of these four piglets has not received any treatment and two piglets have only been tail docked.

Piglets in the UK are castrated less frequently than in America as they are slaughtered at a lower weight and earlier age.  By slaughtering before puberty, the chance of tainted meat and inappropriate breeding is reduced.