Imagine, for a moment, that you’re seated and ready to dine at one of Switzerland’s many celebrated high-end eateries, where a prix fixe meal can run around $400. On the menu, the slow-cooked Schweinsfilet, or pork tenderloin, comes with a bizarre and disturbing disclosure: The pigs raised to make that meal were castrated without pain relief.

Would it change what you order? That’s a decision Switzerland’s 8.8 million residents and millions of annual tourists will soon face.

Effective last week — with a two-year phase-in — a new Swiss law requires food companies, grocers, and restaurants selling animal products in the country to disclose whether they came from animals that were mutilated without anesthetic. That’ll include mutilation procedures like castration in pigs and cattle, dehorning in cows, beak searing in hens, and even leg severing in frogs.

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The law will also require disclosures explaining that foie gras is made by force-feeding ducks and geese.

Horrific as these procedures are, especially when performed without pain relief, they’re standard practice in global meat, milk, and egg production.

Male piglets, for example, are castrated to prevent their meat from giving off a fecal odor and taste — what the industry calls “boar taint.” Piglets’ teeth are clipped to prevent injuries to littermates or their mom’s teats while nursing, but it can also cause painful dental issues and infections. Egg........

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