Animal welfare science is increasingly focused on positive welfare — measuring what makes a good life for pigs, not just the absence of suffering. Play, exploration, social affiliation, and positive anticipation are key indicators.
The turn toward positive welfare in pig science reflects a deeper understanding of what animal welfare actually means. An animal that is not sick, not in pain, and not fearful may still be living a poor life if it has nothing worthwhile to do. Pigs in enriched environments that can explore, play, forage, and engage in social behaviour show measurable positive emotional states — and this matters morally alongside the absence of negative states. For pigs in commercial systems, which are often designed primarily to avoid disease and injury, the positive welfare dimension is frequently neglected. Incorporating play frequency, exploration rates, and positive human-animal relationship scores into welfare assessment frameworks is an important step toward measuring whether pigs are genuinely flourishing.