Rabbit meat production involves significant welfare concerns from conventional wire cage housing that prevents natural behavior, with higher welfare alternatives available and expanding.
Wire cage confinement prevents rabbits from performing their full range of natural behaviors including running, jumping, and binkying. Sore hocks develop from constant contact with wire flooring, causing painful skin lesions and potentially bone infection. The fear response of rabbits, which includes freezing and attempting to flee, is chronically triggered in high-density farming environments with frequent human presence. Mortality from stress-induced cardiac events and disease is higher in conventionally housed rabbits than in enriched systems.