Farmed rabbits are among the least-regulated species in agricultural production, typically kept in wire battery cages that fail to meet their complex behavioural needs for movement, gnawing, and social interaction.
Farmed rabbit welfare represents a significant gap in agricultural welfare regulation — these highly active, social animals are among the most confined of all farmed species relative to their natural behavioural repertoire. Wire battery cages prevent hopping, cause painful foot sores, deny social contact, and frustrate the burrowing, gnawing, and exploratory drives that are fundamental to rabbit welfare. Does in barren cages without nest material before kindling show acute distress through frantic searching behaviour. Park systems that provide group housing with platforms, gnawing material, and nest boxes dramatically improve welfare outcomes and are commercially feasible across the EU. The absence of specific EU rabbit welfare legislation allows practices that would be illegal for other farmed species to continue in the rabbit sector.