The traditional image of the solitary rabbit in a small outdoor hutch is increasingly recognised as a welfare failure, with evidence that rabbits need space, companionship, and indoor access to thrive.
The welfare gap between how rabbits have traditionally been kept and what they actually need is very large. The small outdoor hutch with a single rabbit is one of the most common companion animal welfare problems in the UK, affecting an estimated 1 million rabbits. Rabbits are crepuscular social animals that need space to run, jump, and play, companionship for grooming and social interaction, protection from predator stress, and sufficient monitoring to catch health problems early. The Rabbit Welfare Association's campaign to replace hutches with large indoor setups or garden runs represents the direction of welfare improvement. Indoor house rabbits given free-roam access to an enriched space can have genuinely excellent welfare.