Rabbits are among the most commonly kept pets in Britain but are also among the most frequently kept in conditions that fail to meet their complex physical and social needs.
Pet rabbit welfare in the UK represents a widespread and well-documented welfare failure. The traditional hutch — small, wooden, often poorly insulated, frequently kept as an outdoor-only solitary arrangement — prevents almost all the natural behaviours that rabbits are motivated to perform. Rabbits that cannot run, jump and binky (joyful leaping) are not thriving. Solitary rabbits lack the social bonding that is central to lagomorph wellbeing. The solution is well-established: larger exercise runs attached to hutches, or house rabbit living arrangements, with a neutered companion of appropriate compatibility. The gap between the welfare these animals need and what most owners provide is one of the clearest welfare failures in companion animal keeping, and one of the most tractable with better owner education.