Environmental enrichment is a critical welfare requirement for pigs, which are highly intelligent animals that suffer significantly in barren intensive housing without opportunities to explore and manipulate their environment.
Pig enrichment legislation exists in many jurisdictions but is frequently complied with in letter rather than spirit. A hanging chain or single rubber toy does not provide the sustained investigative opportunity that pig behavioural needs require. Effective enrichment must provide genuine foraging and manipulation opportunities, ideally with multiple materials of varying texture and manipulability, and must be replaced or varied to maintain novelty. The behavioural need to root is particularly strong in pigs and cannot be satisfied by objects that do not allow rooting behaviour. Straw-based systems provide the richest enrichment but are incompatible with fully slatted floor systems used in many modern pig units.