Welfare Science

Farmed Pig Welfare: Hope, Evidence and Action

Combining hope, evidence and action creates the most effective and sustainable approach to pig welfare improvement.

Key Facts

Hope sustained by evidence of progress motivates continued engagement better than either alone
Evidence without hope leads to paralysis; hope without evidence leads to ineffective advocacy
Action grounded in both evidence of effective approaches and hope for improvement is most powerful
The pig welfare movement has genuine reasons for hope alongside honest acknowledgement of challenges

Welfare Considerations

Effective pig welfare advocacy maintains hope grounded in evidence. Hope alone can lead to wishful thinking. Evidence alone can be demoralising given the scale of suffering. Combined with well-targeted action, evidence-grounded hope sustains effective engagement over the long term needed for systemic welfare improvement.

What You Can Do

Seek out evidence of pig welfare progress to maintain motivation alongside awareness of challenges
Choose actions grounded in evidence of effectiveness rather than intuitive but ineffective approaches
Share evidence-based hope with others to build collective motivation for sustained welfare improvement