Pigs demonstrate sophisticated problem-solving abilities across multiple cognitive domains, providing strong evidence for their sentience and the moral importance of their welfare.
The cognitive science of pigs is now advanced enough to make the moral case for their welfare impossible to dismiss on grounds of insufficient sentience. Pigs solve problems, demonstrate self-awareness, use social information strategically and display emotional states that map onto our understanding of mammalian experience. Every additional study confirming pig cognitive sophistication widens the gap between what we know about their minds and how the majority of them live. Translating this science into public and policy change is the challenge: it requires that cognitive evidence reaches people who make purchasing decisions, and that purchasing decisions create market pressure that reaches policy makers and farm managers.