Animal welfare science has evolved from a focus on preventing suffering to an active pursuit of positive experiences. Understanding what constitutes flourishing for animals of different species drives advances in husbandry and enrichment.
Positive welfare science recognizes that preventing suffering is necessary but not sufficient for good animal welfare. Animals have the capacity for positive experiences — pleasure, excitement, satisfaction, and contentment — that are intrinsically valuable and should be actively promoted. The shift from welfare-as-absence-of-suffering to welfare-as-flourishing has practical implications for husbandry design: enrichment must offer genuine challenge and choice, not just stimulation. Measuring positive welfare requires different tools than measuring suffering — behavioral indicators of positive affect, preference tests, and cognitive bias assessment.