Outdoor rabbit housing can meet welfare needs when properly designed, or fail to do so when traditional hutch designs are used without adequate exercise space.
Outdoor housing provides genuine welfare benefits including natural light, grass consumption, and enhanced environmental complexity. These benefits require predator security, adequate space, weather protection, and social companionship to be realized. A rabbit in a small outdoor hutch with inadequate bedding and no exercise area has worse welfare than an indoor rabbit with a large run, despite the natural setting.