Over a billion rabbits are farmed for meat globally each year, yet rabbit welfare regulations lag far behind those for pigs and poultry. Understanding their needs is the first step toward reform.
Farmed rabbit welfare represents one of the largest gaps between the scale of animal use and the adequacy of welfare protection. Wire-floored cages prevent natural locomotion, cause hock sores, and provide no environmental complexity for an animal whose wild counterpart maintains complex burrow systems and social groups. The transition to enriched park systems — while more expensive — provides significantly better outcomes, including lower stress hormones, normal locomotion, and reduced mortality. The commercial rabbit sector operates largely outside public consciousness, meaning consumer pressure has been less developed than for pigs or chickens. Welfare labelling schemes and retailer commitments to cage-free sourcing represent the most tractable near-term levers for improvement.