Modern animal welfare science increasingly focuses not just on preventing suffering but on actively promoting positive emotional and physical states in farmed animals.
The shift from welfare as absence of suffering to welfare as presence of positive states represents a major advance in how we think about farm animal wellbeing. Animals that are free from pain and fear may still lack opportunities for positive experiences. Positive welfare encompasses emotional states like contentment, curiosity, and social bonding, as well as physical vitality. Farms that provide enrichment, positive human-animal relationships, and opportunities for natural behavior create measurable positive states. Assessment tools like the Qualitative Behaviour Assessment help farmers and auditors evaluate positive affect in their animals.