Scientific research has demonstrated that pigs have cognitive abilities comparable to dogs and some primates, with implications for how their welfare needs should be understood and addressed.
The scientific documentation of pig intelligence creates a moral obligation to take pig welfare seriously that goes beyond basic freedom-from-suffering frameworks. Animals with episodic memory can remember past suffering; animals with empathy are affected by others distress; animals with optimistic cognitive biases are experiencing something analogous to positive mental states. This cognitive complexity means that pig welfare encompasses not just physical health and comfort but the quality of mental experience — boredom, anticipation, frustration, satisfaction. Current intensive production systems are profoundly inadequate when measured against what we know about pig cognition and emotional life.