The Five Domains model developed by David Mellor and colleagues provides a more complete welfare assessment framework than the Five Freedoms, incorporating positive welfare states alongside harm prevention.
The Five Domains model represents the current scientific consensus on comprehensive animal welfare assessment. By explicitly including Domain 5 — mental state encompassing both positive and negative experiences — it operationalizes the ethical principle that good animal welfare means more than the absence of suffering. Welfare that enables positive experiences of play, comfort, and social bonding is genuinely better than welfare that merely prevents acute suffering.