Welfare evidence for outdoor and free-range rabbit farming systems compared to conventional cage production, examining behavioral needs, health outcomes, and consumer demand for higher welfare rabbit products.
Farmed rabbits represent one of the least-regulated and lowest-welfare categories of farmed animals, despite their capacity for suffering being equivalent to more commonly discussed livestock. Conventional battery cage systems prevent every major category of natural rabbit behavior — exercise, social play, exploration, digging, and seeking escape. The resulting welfare deprivation causes chronic frustration, stereotypies, musculoskeletal disorders from inactivity, and social isolation in a naturally social species. Outdoor and enriched indoor systems demonstrate that commercially viable rabbit production is possible with dramatically better welfare. Consumer and policy pressure is urgently needed to drive the industry away from conventional battery cage production.