Providing pigs with appropriate enrichment materials is legally required in the EU and UK yet compliance and quality remain highly variable across commercial farms.
Enrichment is not an optional welfare extra for pigs — it addresses a fundamental motivational need to explore, manipulate, and forage that is deeply embedded in pig behaviour. In barren intensive environments, this drive is redirected toward pen-mates, resulting in tail biting, ear biting, and other injurious behaviours. The legal requirement for manipulable enrichment exists precisely because of this welfare evidence, yet the quality of enrichment provided across the industry remains poor. Hanging chains — the most common provision — provide brief novelty but no sustained engagement. Effective enrichment requires materials pigs can truly interact with: chew, tear apart, root through, and consume. Improving enrichment quality is one of the most immediate and cost-effective welfare improvements available to intensive pig producers.