Animal Behavior
Rabbits Aren't Low-Investment "Starter Pets"
A new study shows domesticated rabbits often suffer from poor welfare.
Updated July 4, 2023 Reviewed by Ray Parker
Key points
- In general, the view of rabbits as pets suitable for children has negative implications for rabbits' welfare.
- Researchers found most rabbits were housed alone, but rabbits are a social species.
- The study emphasizes the need for strengthening the protection of rabbits with minimum required standards.
Rabbits are popular companion animals ("pets") because people assume they don't require much care. In the United States, around 3 million are kept as pets. Rabbits often are kept alone and not allowed to perform species-specific behaviors. A new study by Cecilie Ravn Skovlund and her colleagues—Perceptions of the rabbit as a low investment 'starter pet' lead to negative impacts on its welfare: Results of two Danish surveys—shows that companion rabbits need much more time and investment than they usually get when they're kept as pets. I'm pleased that Cecilie Ravn Skovlund, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen, and Professor Peter Sandøe, one of the coauthors of this study, could answer a few questions about their landmark work.
Marc Bekoff: Why did you conduct this research on companion rabbit welfare?
Cecilie Ravn Skovlund/Peter Sandøe: Concerns about companion rabbit welfare have been voiced in several countries in recent years. Originally, this research began as part of a larger project commissioned by the Danish Centre for Animal Welfare (DCAW) on the way rabbits are being kept and cared for in Denmark. After dogs and cats, rabbits are among the most popular companion animals in Denmark. Around 3 percent of Danish families have them. However, there is a worry that they are at risk of neglect and poor welfare, partly because they are seen as a child’s ‘starter pet’. With this in mind, we decided to investigate the situation using surveys to shed light on how the owners’ perceptions of rabbits affect the resources they provide or fail to provide.
How does your research reflect your backgrounds and general areas of interest?
The study is cross-disciplinary. We are a group of researchers with different backgrounds in applied ethology, animal welfare science, ethics, sociology, and veterinary science. This was very useful, as our different competencies enabled us to approach the issue from different angles. The two of us here have a background in animal science and ethology (CRS) and in philosophy and animal ethics (PS).
What are some of your major results and conclusions?
As mentioned, we investigated the conditions that rabbits are housed under, as well as how owner perceptions affect rabbit welfare measured through the provision of certain resources that are vital for rabbits. The resources included social housing, housing type and space availability, gnawing opportunities, ad libitum (i.e., unrestricted) access to hay/grass and routine health care. Unfortunately, we found that many rabbits were being housed in conditions that may compromise their welfare. For example, we found that most rabbits were housed alone. The rabbit is a social species, and the evidence shows that social housing is important for their welfare. Additionally, many rabbits were being kept in cages smaller than the minimum requirements for Danish laboratory rabbits, and were not being fed hay/grass ad libitum, which is important for their health and wellbeing. Nor were they being given gnawing material (rabbits’ teeth grow continuously and these animals like to chew) and many were not seen by a vet on a regular basis. Sadly, a relatively large number of rabbits were not even checked on daily by their owners, indicating possible neglect.
When we looked at the ‘status’ of rabbits, and how their owners perceive them, we found that most rabbits had been acquired for children, and that owners often thought of them as ‘starter pets’ for children. Moreover, many owners showed little willingness to invest money and resources into the care of their rabbits. Our analyses revealed that the perception of rabbits as low-investment ‘starter pets’ was affecting the way the owners treated them. Owners who saw rabbits in this way were significantly more likely to have failed to provide the aforementioned resources that are essential for rabbit welfare.
In general, our results show that the typical view of rabbits has negative implications for rabbit welfare. This finding highlights the need to change the way owners see their animals. The results also emphasize the need for strengthening the protection of rabbits through minimum requirements and official recommendations for rabbit husbandry.
How does your research differ from other studies on this topic?
We combined two survey methods in our study. One was a representative survey of Danish companion animal owners, and the other was a more in-depth survey of Danish rabbit owners based on convenience sampling (using social media). With this two-pronged approach, we obtained data from the first survey that gave us a representative picture of the population of rabbit owners. We were then able to combine this with data from the larger (but not representative) sample in the second survey. Importantly, convenience sampling poses the risk of bias toward responses from dedicated rabbit owners, why such results may be skewed toward a more positive outcome in terms of welfare. This bias became evident from comparing the data from our representative sample to the data from the convenience sample, which meant we were able to account for this in the results. To our knowledge, the combination of the methods of the two surveys and the relatively large sample size provides the most comprehensive survey to date on companion rabbit welfare.
Are you hopeful that, as people learn more about rabbits and their needs, they will give these amazing animals more respect and treat them better?
Rabbits are great companion animals if they are cared for properly. However, they are not a low-effort or short-term commitment companion animals. Some rabbits can live up to 14 years. They need space to roam and companionship with other rabbits. They should also be given a safe environment offering cognitive stimulation through complexity and variation, an appropriate diet, and routine health care, among other things. Owners who provide these essentials will be rewarded with animals that exhibit interesting, multifaceted behavior as well as good companionship, which in turn may change the way the owners perceive their rabbits.
More and more owners today are investing time and resources in rabbit care, and a growing number of companion rabbits are free roaming. But unfortunately, the vast majority of rabbits are still being kept in conditions that compromise their welfare. Here, legal protection and minimum requirements of rabbit husbandry could help to drive welfare improvements. Hopefully, our results will persuade those in the companion animal sector that renewed efforts should be made to ensure that both existing and future rabbit owners appreciate the needs of rabbits and the level of investment they are committing to. We also hope official codes of practice and guidelines for rabbits will be developed in more countries.
Cecilie Ravn Skovlund, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Copenhagen, and Professor Peter Sandøe are part of the research group at the Centre for Companion Animal Welfare. Skovlund is working with companion rabbits, including rabbit behavior, evidence-based husbandry and welfare, and is committed to improving the conditions for rabbits, and in general, to ensure optimal welfare for animals under human care (ORCID).
Sandøe is a professor of bioethics at the University of Copenhagen since 1997, presently with his chair divided between the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and the Department of Food and Resource Economics. Since 2020, he has been the director of the Centre for Companion Animal Welfare. For more information about his research in the field of animal ethics, animal welfare, human-animal relations, and veterinary ethics see www.animalethics.net.
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Rabbits: Their Fascinating, Diverse, Yet Unappreciated Lives.
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Good News For Dogs, Cats, and Rabbits: L.A. May Ban Sale of Commercially Bred Animals.
