European livestock farmers are illegally castrating pigs without anesthetic, according to a team of European scientists. Farmers castrate pigs to lower testosterone levels, which produces meat with more fat that doesn’t have a “boar taint” smell, and EU law states they are only allowed to castrate an animal without anesthetic if the pig is less than a week old. After seven days, a vet must carry out the procedure with anesthetic. However, researchers found that these rules are not always followed. In Spain, the most common castration method is surgery without anesthetic, which causes unnecessary suffering. This investigation is part of the PIGCAS project, which aims to gather information about pig castration to inform European legislation. The study was published in the most recent issue of Animal.