Welfare auditing of finishing pig herds uses validated animal-based measures to provide objective welfare assessments beyond compliance-based inspection.
Welfare audit frameworks that use animal-based measures rather than facility checklists detect welfare problems within nominally compliant systems. A farm with all required equipment may still have high rates of tail biting, lameness or fighting injuries — problems that animal-based assessment reveals but equipment auditing misses. The shift toward outcome-based welfare assessment represents a more effective and honest welfare accountability system. Slaughterhouse data on carcass welfare indicators provides independent welfare monitoring that validates or challenges on-farm assessments.