Pigs are highly social animals with complex group dynamics. Group housing that respects their social needs improves welfare outcomes compared to individual confinement.
Pig social welfare depends on the stability and composition of their groups. In the wild, pigs establish social bonds through familiarity and clear hierarchies that, once established, allow most conflicts to be resolved through display rather than fighting. Commercial production disrupts this by repeatedly mixing animals at weaning, transfer, and regrouping — each event triggering potentially hours of aggressive fighting. Welfare improvements centre on minimising regrouping events, maintaining stable social groups from weaning to slaughter, providing adequate space that reduces competition intensity, and using strategic enrichment (environmental complexity, multiple feeding stations) that reduces the value of aggressive resource defence. These are largely management solutions that cost relatively little compared to infrastructure changes.