Validated positive welfare assessment tools for livestock are being developed and validated, enabling farms to measure and demonstrate the presence of positive experiences alongside absence of welfare problems.
Positive welfare assessment represents a scientific and ethical advance over deficit-focused welfare evaluation. Measuring only the absence of harm leaves unanswered whether animals have opportunities for positive experiences. Play, social bonding, exploration, and reward-seeking are behavioral indicators of positive welfare states that can be measured reliably. Farm assessments that include positive indicators provide a more complete welfare picture and create incentives for farms to actively promote positive experiences rather than simply preventing the worst harms. The development of validated positive welfare tools for major farm species is advancing rapidly.