Rabbits are among the most intensively farmed animals globally, yet receive less welfare regulation than poultry or pigs. Battery cage farming of rabbits causes significant suffering for millions of animals.
Farmed rabbit welfare sits in a regulatory gap that has allowed intensive battery farming to expand without the scrutiny applied to other species. Rabbits are not only meat animals but also popular pets, creating a cognitive dissonance in public attitudes that has allowed their farming welfare to remain largely unexamined. Battery cage rabbits cannot dig, hide, gnaw adequately, or express the locomotor behaviors strongly motivated by their biology. The welfare evidence for reform is clear, and the absence of EU-level regulation is a policy failure that animal welfare advocates have been working to address. Consumer pressure is one of the most effective levers available.