Rabbit housing standards have dramatically increased in recent years as welfare science has demonstrated that traditional hutch housing is profoundly inadequate for these active animals.
Rabbit housing welfare has been transformed by advocacy campaigns that exposed the gap between the small hutch model of rabbit keeping and evidence of what rabbits actually need. A rabbit in a traditional 4-foot hutch cannot run, jump, or express any of its natural locomotive behaviours — it is, effectively, imprisoned. The new standards recommended by welfare organisations reflect scientific understanding of rabbit locomotion and behaviour, not simply arbitrary preferences. Yet small hutches remain widely available and widely purchased because they are cheap and because the advertising of pet retailers has not kept pace with welfare evidence. Changing rabbit housing norms requires sustained consumer education and regulatory willingness to set minimum space standards.