Positive Welfare Indicators: Measuring Good Lives in Animals

Welfare science increasingly measures positive states — play, curiosity, comfort, and social bonding — rather than only negative states, transforming how we assess and design animal environments.

Key Facts

Play behavior is one of the strongest indicators of positive welfare across species
Cows produce more milk when given names — an indicator of individual attention improving positive welfare
Piglets in enriched environments show higher play rates and lower stress hormone levels
Rats laugh at ultrasonic frequencies when tickled — a positive welfare indicator
The Five Domains model explicitly includes a fifth domain: mental state — encompassing both positive and negative experiences

Welfare Considerations

Measuring only the absence of suffering gives an incomplete picture of animal welfare. An animal may be free of disease, injury, and pain yet live a deeply impoverished life — bored, isolated, and unable to express its behavioral nature. Positive welfare science asks: what does this animal enjoy? What does it seek? What behaviors, when prevented, cause frustration? Designing environments that enable play, exploration, social bonding, and cognitive engagement — not just preventing harm — is the frontier of welfare practice. It requires understanding each species deeply enough to know what a good life looks like for them.

What You Can Do

Evaluate the animals in your care for presence of positive behavioral indicators — play, exploration, positive social interaction
Support animal care institutions that publicly report positive as well as negative welfare indicators
Advocate for positive welfare standards to be incorporated into certification requirements
Learn about species-typical positive behaviors for any animals you keep or are responsible for
Share positive welfare science with vets, farmers, and animal care professionals in your network