Pigs are among the most cognitively sophisticated farm animals, with intelligence comparable to dogs and some primates. This complexity has direct implications for how we should treat them.
Pig intelligence is not merely a scientific curiosity but a welfare-relevant fact with profound implications for how we assess and respond to their suffering. A cognitively complex animal in a barren, unstimulating environment with no opportunity for natural behaviour expression does not merely experience deprivation — it experiences boredom, frustration, and the negative emotional states associated with chronic understimulation. Barren housing triggers measurable cognitive bias changes consistent with pessimism and anhedonia. Their empathic capacity means that individual suffering can propagate through a group. Their memory means that aversive experiences with stockpeople or procedures are retained and influence future stress responses. Enrichment that provides foraging challenges, social complexity, and novel stimulation meaningfully improves emotional state as well as reducing injurious behaviours. The case for enriched housing, larger social groups, outdoor access, and positive human interaction with pigs is not merely about preventing physical harm but about providing the cognitive and social stimulation that their intelligence makes necessary for genuine wellbeing.