Modern welfare science increasingly focuses on positive welfare — enabling animals to experience pleasure, curiosity, play, and satisfaction, not merely avoiding negative states.
The traditional welfare framework focused primarily on preventing suffering — the Five Freedoms addressed hunger, discomfort, pain, fear, and inability to express normal behaviour. Modern welfare science has moved beyond this to ask a richer question: are animals experiencing positive states? Curiosity satisfied, play engaged in, social bonds maintained, anticipation of rewarding activities — these are as much part of a life that goes well as the absence of pain. Positive welfare assessment requires different tools: behavioural indicators of play and exploration, judgement bias tests that reveal emotional valence, and environmental designs that offer genuine choice and opportunity. Shifting welfare regulation and farm assurance to include positive welfare indicators would raise the bar from acceptable to good, and from good to excellent.