Research documenting positive emotions in pigs challenges simplistic welfare assessments focused only on disease and injury - measuring and promoting positive states is the frontier of pig welfare science.
Positive pig welfare science has expanded our understanding of what good pig welfare requires. The Five Domains model of animal welfare explicitly includes positive states as a welfare requirement, not just absence of negative states. Pigs in enriched environments that permit play, exploration and social interaction show measurable positive emotional indicators. This creates a welfare standard that goes beyond disease prevention and housing quality to ask: are pigs experiencing positive states? Achieving this standard requires environment designs that actively support positive behaviour expression. The science is clear - pigs in barren industrial environments are deprived of fundamental positive welfare experiences.