Positive welfare indicators for pigs allow assessment of whether animals are thriving rather than merely not suffering, representing a fundamental shift in welfare assessment.
The shift from welfare as the absence of suffering to welfare as the presence of positive states represents a philosophical and practical advance in animal welfare. For pigs - highly intelligent, emotionally complex animals - this shift is particularly important. Pigs in conventional systems may not be acutely suffering but are clearly not thriving: they have few opportunities for play, exploration, social choice, or positive surprise. Positive welfare assessment tools give us the means to identify not just when pigs are suffering but when they are genuinely doing well - and to distinguish between systems that merely prevent the worst outcomes and those that actively support flourishing.