Providing appropriate enrichment materials to pigs is legally required in the EU and scientifically demonstrated to reduce aggression, stereotypic behaviors, and stress — but implementation quality varies enormously.
Pigs are highly intelligent animals with strong motivation to explore, root, and forage. When this behavior is thwarted by barren environments, they redirect it into damaging behaviors including tail biting, which causes pain and injury to victims and precedes infection and mortality. The legal requirement for enrichment in the EU has not been consistently enforced, with many farms providing technically compliant but behaviorally inadequate materials. Effective enrichment — loose substrate that can be rooted and moved — requires management adaptations but produces measurable welfare and production benefits. Transition to deep-litter and other systems providing genuine enrichment represents a solvable welfare improvement.