Animal welfare science is increasingly moving beyond preventing suffering to actively promoting positive experiences - pleasure, play, curiosity, and comfort - in animals under human care.
Traditional animal welfare focused primarily on preventing the five freedoms' negatives - hunger, discomfort, pain, fear, distress. The Five Domains and Positive Welfare movement recognises this is insufficient. Good welfare requires that animals experience positive states - pleasure from foraging, social bonding, play, exploration, and cognitive engagement. Positive welfare science is changing how farms, zoos, and laboratories design environments, with evidence that positive states also improve health and productivity outcomes.