Pigs demonstrate remarkable cognitive abilities including problem-solving, mirror self-recognition, and emotional intelligence. These capacities have direct implications for the welfare standards they deserve.
Pig intelligence research presents a moral challenge to current farming practices that the agricultural industry has been slow to engage with. An animal that can learn from watching others, form emotional responses to specific humans, demonstrate optimistic or pessimistic states depending on its environment, and engage with symbolic representations deserves welfare standards commensurate with this complexity. The gap between pig cognitive capacity and the environments in which most pigs live is one of the starkest welfare injustices in modern food systems. Making this evidence accessible to consumers and policymakers is fundamental to building the political will for meaningful reform.