Research into positive emotions in pigs demonstrates that these intelligent animals experience play, anticipation, and social bonding - findings that strengthen the case for enriched housing.
The science of positive emotions in pigs transforms the welfare conversation from preventing suffering to actively creating positive experiences. Pigs that play, explore, and form social bonds are experiencing positive states that farms can facilitate through appropriate enrichment, stable social groups, and environmental complexity. Positive welfare science provides new metrics for assessing farm conditions beyond disease and injury rates, and motivates management approaches focused on what pigs can do rather than just what they should not experience.