Pig welfare science has advanced beyond measuring suffering to developing tools for assessing positive welfare states including play, curiosity, and social affiliation.
The shift from negative to positive welfare assessment in pigs represents a maturation of the field. A welfare science that only asks whether pigs are suffering misses the equally important question of whether they are thriving. Pigs in enriched environments with space, companions, and appropriate substrate play, explore, socialise, and display tail wagging — all positive welfare indicators. Incorporating these measures into certification and monitoring systems changes the welfare target from 'not suffering' to 'genuinely thriving' — a significantly higher bar that better reflects the full scope of pig welfare. The evidence-based tools for measuring this now exist.