Wild rabbits face severe welfare challenges from myxomatosis and rabbit haemorrhagic disease, agricultural control measures, and predation, with population implications for UK biodiversity.
Wild rabbit welfare is both an individual animal welfare concern and an ecological crisis with welfare implications at ecosystem level. Myxomatosis causes particularly prolonged and distressing death in individual rabbits - blind, disoriented animals are vulnerable to predation and starvation over a period of weeks. The welfare response at individual level - humane euthanasia of suffering rabbits found in the open - is the most accessible intervention available to members of the public. At population level, supporting research into vaccination and biosecure populations contributes to reducing disease burden. The ecological significance of rabbits means their welfare crisis has knock-on welfare effects for many other species that depend on rabbit-maintained grassland.