Sheep are far more cognitively sophisticated than their reputation suggests - understanding their intelligence reframes welfare requirements and challenges the acceptability of some intensive management practices.
Sheep cognitive welfare evidence has significant implications for how we evaluate intensive management practices. Animals capable of recognising 50 individual faces, experiencing emotional contagion and forming lasting social bonds are not blank slates indifferent to social disruption, isolation or transport. Their welfare in intensive systems where frequent regrouping, transport and unfamiliar handling occur involves psychological dimensions beyond physical health. Understanding sheep intelligence provides a stronger ethical foundation for campaigning against practices that cause social disruption or psychological stress. The gap between sheep cognitive sophistication and the welfare standards applied to them in most production systems is substantial.