Animal welfare science is shifting from a focus on preventing negative states toward actively promoting positive experiences. Understanding positive welfare indicators helps producers go beyond minimum standards.
Traditional welfare assessment focused primarily on identifying and counting negative outcomes: injuries, disease, stereotypy, aggression. Positive welfare science recognises that the absence of suffering is not equivalent to good welfare. Animals can be free of obvious injuries while still lacking opportunities for positive experiences. Measuring positive indicators like play, social bonding and exploratory behaviour provides a richer picture of welfare quality and helps identify genuinely good systems rather than simply adequate ones.