Pigs have strong behavioural needs for rooting, foraging and exploratory behaviour that are poorly met in conventional intensive systems, and enrichment provision is both a legal requirement and a welfare priority.
The mismatch between natural behavioural needs and conventional housing is at the core of pig welfare problems in intensive production. Tail-biting, ear-biting and chronic frustration are direct consequences of enrichment deprivation. High-quality enrichment reduces these problems substantially, but only when it engages the animal's foraging and rooting motivation — static, hard, non-destructible materials fail this test. Effective enrichment must be changeable, destructible and at snout level.