Farmed rabbits are one of the least welfare-regulated livestock species globally, with the majority still housed in conventional wire battery cages that severely restrict movement and natural behaviour.
Farmed rabbit welfare is among the most neglected in agriculture. The biological needs of rabbits — for running, leaping, social interaction, and soft substrate — are almost entirely incompatible with conventional battery cage production. Rabbits in wire cages cannot perform the high-speed locomotion that is central to their movement biology; they cannot groom effectively; they cannot interact normally with conspecifics; and they cannot avoid wire-induced foot injuries. Reproductive does spend their entire productive lives in cages so small that they cannot turn around. The welfare trajectory for rabbit farming requires a transition to enriched group housing systems that provide solid or partly solid flooring, platforms for resting, space for locomotion, and appropriate social grouping. Consumer awareness of rabbit welfare conditions is very low compared to other farmed species, making public education an important advocacy lever.