The debate between outdoor and indoor rabbit keeping involves complex welfare tradeoffs, but the clearest guidance is that rabbits need far more space, companionship, and complexity than traditional hutch keeping provides.
Rabbit housing welfare has been dramatically reframed in recent decades: the image of rabbits in small hutches as appropriate 'starter pets' has been replaced by recognition that rabbits are complex social animals with significant space, behavioral, and social needs. Traditional hutch keeping - the default setup for millions of rabbits - provides a fraction of the space and environmental complexity rabbits require for good welfare. Outdoor rabbits in areas with foxes experience persistent threat-related stress even from predators they cannot reach, because prey animals cannot distinguish visible-but-contained threats from genuine danger. Indoor keeping solves some problems but introduces others. The clearest welfare improvement is moving from individual small hutch housing to large enclosures with a bonded companion and environmental complexity - an upgrade that is widely achievable with modest investment.