Pigs demonstrate cognitive complexity that challenges welfare frameworks built around simpler animals, requiring richer welfare standards.
The cognitive complexity of pigs demands welfare standards that go beyond physical needs to address psychological needs for social complexity, exploration, and cognitive challenge. A pig that is well-nourished but socially isolated in a barren pen is experiencing welfare deprivation comparable to what we would recognize as deprivation in a cognitively comparable primate. The practical implication is that pig welfare standards must require not just freedom from physical suffering but positive opportunities for social bonding, exploration, and cognitive engagement.