The ultimate objective would be to design environments that allow each individual to make choices and to express agency in a way conducive for its own welfare.
Abstract
Animal welfare was initially conceived as the absence of negative experiences. More recently, the importance of positive affects was recognised. This suggests a continuum from very poor welfare, where suffering predominates, to very good welfare, where positive affects predominate, and that the intrinsic hedonic value of the environment, i.e. whether it is pleasant or not, determines the level of welfare an animal can reach on this continuum.