Rabbit farms

Over 1 billion rabbits are reared for slaughter globally each year. Nearly half of these are in Asia.

Rabbits slaughtered in 2006 by continent.

Within the European Union, over 300 million rabbits are reared for slaughter each year. The major producers are Italy, Spain and France, which between them account for over three quarters of EU production. Most of the rabbit meat produced in the EU is from large intensive farms which may house up to 20,000 rabbits. 

FOUR PAWS investigators have visted a typical rabbit farm in the EU. See the video. This upsetting footage shows some rabbits with swollen bleeding eyes and cannibalism. You can see photographs from some of our invesigations here.

Alarmingly, there is currently no species-specific EU legislation protecting the welfare of farmed rabbits.

Welfare Issues

Rabbits were domesticated only relatively recently compared with many other farmed animals and their behaviour has been little altered by domestication. Natural rabbit behaviours include chewing, digging and socialising with other rabbits. Most commercially farmed rabbits are kept in cages in closed buildings where their natural behaviour is severely restricted. 

Inadequate space and height

Rabbits usually move by hopping, with each hop covering around 70 cm of ground, but during grazing they move more slowly. They can run at speeds of up to 30 km/h, jump higher than a metre and make sudden changes of direction by zigzagging.  Rabbits have highly sensitive senses of smell and hearing.  They are very alert animals and regularly interrupt activities to check for danger by sitting or rearing up on their hind legs with ears erect. 

Young rabbits who are reared for meat (“growers”) have 450 – 600 cm² per animal in the cage. This is less than the area of an ordinary A4 sheet of typing paper.  A typical cage for a doe in the EU is 60 – 65 cm long, 40 – 48 cm wide and 30 – 35 cm high.  The floor space and height are so restricted that caged rabbits are often unable to move normally and adopt normal postures such as lying stretched out, sitting and standing with their ears erect, rearing up, turning around comfortably and hopping. The lack of exercise in caged rabbits can lead to weakened bones. 

Barren environment

In a natural environment, rabbits dig a large and complex system of burrows which they use for resting, hiding and rearing their young. They will usually feed at dusk and dawn and at various points during the night.

Commercially farmed rabbits are generally fed on pellets and, except for a feeder and drinker, no other structural objects are usually provided in the cage.  The barren environment and lack of forage feed (e.g. hay) can lead to rabbits developing abnormal stereotypical behaviours such as excessive grooming and repetitive gnawing or chewing the cage.

Wild  rabbits are social animals, living in stable groups typically of between two and nine adult females, one to three adult males and their offspring.  Serious aggression is rare once a stable hierarchy has been established and strong relationships develop between specific individuals, who will choose to remain close to each other and rest together, often in body contact. Mutual grooming is an important behaviour to reinforce social bonds.

"Growers" are often housed in pairs or groups, but breeding does and bucks are usually kept in individual cages, denying them the opportunity for social interaction.  Individually caged rabbits show more abnormal stereotypical behaviour than rabbits housed in groups. 

To find out more about the diseases and illness that the conditions above please visit our page How they suffer.

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