Scientific research has established pigs as highly intelligent animals with complex cognitive needs that standard commercial housing systems frequently fail to meet.
The gap between pig cognitive complexity and the environments most commercial farms provide is a profound welfare concern. Barren concrete pens offer no outlet for the problem-solving, social complexity, and environmental exploration that pig cognition evolved to engage with. Pigs in enriched environments show more positive emotional states as measured by cognitive bias tests - they make more optimistic judgments when environmental welfare is higher. This evidence should fundamentally inform minimum housing standards.