Pigs are among the most cognitively sophisticated farm animals, with problem-solving abilities, emotional complexity, and social intelligence that require meaningful environmental enrichment to prevent boredom and frustration.
Pig intelligence creates both welfare risk and welfare opportunity. The same cognitive capacity that makes enrichment rewarding makes deprivation harmful — intelligent animals in barren environments suffer more acutely than less cognitively sophisticated species. Standard commercial pig housing often fails to meet cognitive needs, producing the damaging behaviors — tail-biting, aggression — that then require further interventions like tail docking. Addressing cognitive needs through substrate, novelty, and social stability prevents these problems at their root.