Farmed rabbits in Europe face significant welfare problems in conventional cages, with cage systems increasingly being replaced by welfare-positive group housing alternatives.
Farmed rabbit welfare in conventional cage systems involves systematic frustration of fundamental behaviours: gnawing, running, jumping, and social interaction cannot be expressed in wire cages. Bone fractures reflect skeletal deterioration from insufficient movement. Group housing provides qualitatively better welfare for animals that are highly social in appropriate group configurations. The European trajectory toward enhanced housing systems reflects both welfare science and consumer pressure.