Many farm animals are routinely tail-docked and/or castrated or debeaked. The numbers of these mutilation operations - especially the castrations - have dropped over the last decade or so. However, it still seems - or it is still believed - that some of the current systems of intensive husbandry, ie the fattening of pigs and the group-rearing of broiler poultry for the table, can only be carried out if the animals are tail-docked or debeaked.