Examining the welfare challenges facing farmed rabbits globally — one of the most numerous farmed animals outside poultry — and the regulatory gaps that leave billions of animals inadequately protected.
Rabbit farming represents one of the largest animal welfare blind spots in global food production. While public concern for laying hen welfare has driven meaningful cage reform, rabbits — equally capable of suffering and equally restricted in conventional systems — receive far less attention from welfare advocates, regulators, and consumers. The welfare case for reform is scientifically robust: rabbits in enriched or group systems demonstrate clear behavioral and physiological indicators of better welfare than battery-caged counterparts. Policy reform is advancing slowly in Europe but is largely absent in the major producing countries of Asia, where the vast majority of farmed rabbits are housed.