Rabbits farmed for meat face some of the highest mortality rates of any farmed species, driven by respiratory disease, gastrointestinal stasis, and housing systems that deny fundamental behavioral needs.
Farmed rabbit welfare represents one of the most neglected areas of farmed animal welfare advocacy despite the scale of suffering involved. The industry operates largely outside public view, and rabbits — perceived as cute pets — rarely enter consumer consciousness as farmed animals at all. Battery cage systems deny rabbits the ability to perform their full behavioral repertoire including running, jumping, and hiding, and the wire flooring causes painful foot lesions in a significant proportion of animals. Disease burdens are severe: respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases kill tens of millions of animals annually under conditions of considerable suffering. The shift to group housing systems with enrichment and solid flooring, already required by some certification schemes, produces measurable welfare improvements. Consumer awareness and purchasing preferences represent a meaningful lever for improving farmed rabbit welfare given the industry's relatively small scale in most markets.