Pigs are among the most cognitively complex of all farmed animals — understanding their intelligence is essential context for assessing the welfare implications of intensive farming systems.
The cognitive complexity of pigs creates profound welfare implications. Animals capable of episodic memory, social cognition, and optimism/pessimism as emotional states are not simply processing units — they have inner lives that matter morally. A pig in a barren concrete pen, deprived of social contact, exploratory behaviour, and environmental complexity, is not merely inconvenienced — it is suffering. Understanding pig intelligence does not merely satisfy scientific curiosity; it reframes the moral stakes of the intensive pig farming practices that affect billions of animals. The case for enriched, spacious, and socially appropriate pig housing is strengthened enormously by cognitive science.