The Five Domains model and positive welfare science now focus not just on preventing pig suffering, but on actively promoting positive emotional states. Understanding pig emotions opens new frontiers in welfare improvement.
Animal welfare science has undergone a paradigm shift from simply minimising suffering to actively cultivating positive welfare states. For pigs - highly intelligent, emotionally complex animals - this means creating conditions where they can express curiosity, play, social bonding and exploration. The cognitive bias test is now a validated tool for measuring emotional state in pigs: animals in poor conditions show pessimistic judgement, while those in enriched environments show optimistic responses. This science provides a powerful argument against the common defence of intensive farming that 'the animals aren't suffering' - absence of acute suffering is the minimum, not the goal.