Certain rabbit breeds have structural skull deformities that predispose them to severe dental disease from birth, raising important welfare and breeding ethics questions.
Rabbit breed welfare raises the same ethical questions about deliberately breeding animals with conformation that causes chronic health problems as brachycephalic dog and cat breeding. Rabbits bred with extremely compressed or lop-eared skull conformations will suffer dental disease as a near-inevitable consequence of their anatomy. This is a harm caused by human breeding choices, not chance, and it occurs at scale across popular rabbit breeds. The welfare response includes breeding reform away from extreme conformations, responsible purchasing that avoids affected breeds, and veterinary advocacy for breed standards that prioritize health.