The Five Domains model is the most comprehensive current framework for assessing animal welfare, covering nutrition, environment, health, behaviour and mental state.
The Five Domains model represents a significant advance over the Five Freedoms because it explicitly includes positive experiences as welfare goals, not just the absence of negative ones. Good welfare requires that animals experience positive mental states — pleasure, satisfaction, confidence and engagement — not merely the absence of hunger, pain or fear. This has practical implications for enrichment, housing design and human-animal interaction protocols.