The design of livestock housing systems directly determines which natural behaviors animals can express, making housing a fundamental welfare determinant.
Livestock housing design is arguably the single most impactful welfare decision in intensive farming systems. Housing that prevents animals from expressing motivated natural behaviors - sows that cannot turn around, hens that cannot perch or dust bathe, cattle that cannot groom themselves - causes chronic behavioral frustration that is a primary welfare deficit. The animal welfare science is clear: behavioral opportunity, not just physical health and nutrition, is essential for good welfare. Housing reform toward systems providing meaningful behavioral opportunity represents one of the most impactful systemic welfare improvements available, affecting billions of animals.