The RSPCA is calling for a closer examination of rabbit care and breeding after shocking cases of pets being inappropriately housed with basic welfare needs unmet.
This Rabbit Awareness Week (June 23-27), the animal organisation and supporting charities have teamed up to urge owners to provide their pet rabbits with suitable and well enriched accommodation/living spaces – so rabbits have enough room to rest, exercise and express their natural behaviours like hiding, digging and foraging.
The appeal comes after the charity’s officers have been called out to tackle incidents of neglect where rabbits have been abandoned or kept in squalid and cramped conditions.
One such call-out led to the prosecution of two people when over 100 rabbits were found packed into over 30 cages on the first floor of a property in the East of England in December 2023. A witness contacted the RSPCA after finding the rabbits overcrowded in basic cages (pictured below). Cases like this highlight how a lack of understanding of how to care for rabbits, including how they should be housed, can still be all too prevalent.
The RSPCA and other animal welfare charities recommend a medium-sized pair of rabbits should be housed in an enclosure measuring at least 3 metres by 2 metres and 1 metre high (approx 9.9 x 6.6 x 3.3ft), but if possible owners should consider even larger accommodation.
Some of the cages in the property were so small they would ordinarily have been used for keeping hamsters. Several of the rabbits were also found underweight, while one lay dead in one of the cages.
It is feared neglect of rabbits continues amid a crisis which has seen many rescues struggling to cope with the numbers of rabbits abandoned, mistreated or given up by owners who have failed to neuter their pets and then have become overwhelmed by out-of-control breeding.
While the numbers of rabbits being abandoned and taken into care at RSPCA centres has fallen in the last two years, the charity is still left with large numbers of rabbits that need rehoming. Between 2022 and 2024 RSPCA national centres took in 2,665 rabbits.
Of small pets rabbits are the most likely to be abandoned with the RSPCA dealing with 4,619 abandoned rabbits in the three years from 2022 and 2024. In a similar period 1,329 guinea pigs, 1,122 ferrets and 837 rats were abandoned.
Three years ago, after a box of rabbits was found on the doorsteps of its centre, RSPCA Kent North-West Branch decided to invest in new rabbit accommodation at Folkestone (pictured) to provide the best possible care for bunnies while showcasing how enclosures should be spacious and comfortable, allowing bunnies the chance to hop, skip and jump.
