Modern animal welfare science increasingly focuses on promoting positive states rather than merely preventing suffering.
Animal welfare has historically focused on preventing negative states: eliminating hunger, pain, fear, and distress. Positive welfare science goes further, asking what constitutes a good life for an animal and how to promote it. Animals in enriched environments show play, curiosity, and social bonding that indicate genuine positive welfare rather than merely the absence of suffering. This shift from preventing bad to promoting good is transforming welfare standards.