Providing pigs with appropriate foraging substrate is both legally required and strongly welfare-beneficial. Understanding what constitutes effective enrichment prevents compliance without welfare benefit.
Enrichment provision is only welfare-beneficial when it genuinely satisfies the behavioural motivations of the animals. The widespread practice of providing a single plastic toy or chain provides legal compliance without meaningful welfare benefit. Pigs provided with straw spend significantly more time in positive investigative behaviour and less time in harmful directed behaviours including tail biting. The foraging substrate must be replenished regularly and varied to maintain engagement. Rooting in deep straw provides a qualitatively different experience to surface manipulation of hanging objects, addressing the fundamental biological drive to explore and root through substrate.