Scientific research on pig cognition and emotional complexity poses profound ethical challenges to conventional intensive pork production systems.
The growing scientific evidence of pig cognition and emotional complexity is in profound tension with the conditions most pigs experience in intensive production systems. Animals capable of empathy, tool use, anticipatory emotions and complex social relationships experience gestation crates, barren concrete floors and separation from their young in ways that cause sustained psychological suffering as well as physical deprivation. The ethical question this poses is not whether pigs matter - science confirms they do - but whether society is willing to change systems accordingly. Consumer and legislative pressure are the primary levers for change.