Farmed rabbit welfare is among the most neglected areas of farm animal welfare policy. EU and UK legislation remains inadequate, and the typical cage system used for commercial rabbit production causes severe welfare compromise.
Farmed rabbit welfare represents one of the most severe and least addressed welfare problems in European livestock production. The disconnect between rabbits' natural behaviour - social groups, extensive burrow systems, long runs - and their actual conditions in conventional battery cages is profound. Wire floors cause chronic foot pain and injury; inability to run causes progressive muscle weakness; complete social and environmental impoverishment causes stereotypic behaviours indicating chronic frustration. Unlike laying hens - which received species-specific legislation in the 1990s - farmed rabbits still lack the regulatory protection their welfare needs require. This is a tractable policy problem: the science is clear and higher welfare systems exist.