Pigs experience positive emotional states including play, anticipation, and social joy. Recognizing and promoting positive emotions in pig farming is central to advanced welfare thinking.
Recognizing that pigs experience positive emotions including joy, curiosity, and social pleasure transforms the welfare conversation from minimizing suffering to actively promoting good lives. Positive welfare assessment moves beyond asking "are pigs not suffering?" to asking "are pigs thriving?" This distinction matters because conditions that avoid obvious negative indicators may still fail to provide the positive experiences that constitute good welfare. Farming systems that provide opportunities for play, exploration, positive social interaction, and behavioral satisfaction are demonstrably superior welfare environments even when compared to systems that prevent obvious physical harm but provide no positive behavioral opportunities.