Positive welfare indicators for pigs - measuring pleasurable states rather than just absence of suffering - are transforming how pig welfare is assessed.
Measuring pig welfare through positive indicators - what good pig welfare looks like, rather than just what bad welfare looks like - represents a significant advance in welfare science. Traditional welfare audits focused on detecting problems: injuries, stereotypies, disease. Positive welfare science asks additional questions: are these pigs playing? Are they exploring? Do they show positive anticipation at feeding? Are their tails high and mobile? These indicators are valuable precisely because they are difficult to fake: a pig in genuine pain does not play, regardless of housing conditions. Integrating positive welfare indicators into farm assessment protocols gives welfare auditors a more complete picture of animal experience and creates incentives for farms to actively provide positive conditions, not just avoid obvious harms.