Wild rabbit populations face ongoing welfare crises from myxomatosis and rabbit viral haemorrhagic disease (RVHD), causing severe suffering in affected individuals.
Myxomatosis causes one of the most prolonged and distressing disease courses of any UK wildlife disease - affected rabbits become blind, unable to eat, and deteriorate over nearly two weeks before death. The scale of population-level suffering during outbreak years is very large. Humane euthanasia of severely affected individuals is the most welfare-positive action available to members of the public.