Providing pigs with enriched, complex habitats on farm dramatically reduces abnormal behaviours and improves physical and psychological health.
Pig habitat provision is among the highest-leverage welfare interventions available to producers. Pigs are intelligent, curious animals with strong motivational drives to root, explore, and manipulate the environment. When these drives cannot be expressed, they are redirected onto pen-mates as tail biting, ear biting, and other injurious behaviours. Barren, concrete-floored pens with chain toys represent the legal minimum in many jurisdictions but fall far short of genuine welfare provision. Research consistently shows that straw, compost, or any manipulable substrate reduces harmful behaviours and produces measurable welfare benefits at modest cost. The argument that enrichment is economically impractical is undermined by evidence that tail biting injuries have significant hidden costs.