Guidance

Rabbits: on-farm welfare

How to keep rabbits on farms and your housing health and feed responsibilities.

• From: Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
• Published: 15 October 2015
• Last updated: 5 October 2023 — See all updates

Applies to England

Documents

Codes of recommendations for the welfare of livestock - rabbits

HTML

Codes of recommendations for the welfare of livestock - rabbits

PDF, 126 KB, 13 pages

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Details

The legislation covering on-farm welfare for rabbits is:

• the Animal Welfare Act 2006
• the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2007
• the Mutilations (Permitted Procedures) (England) Regulations 2007

The code of practice for the welfare of rabbits provides guidance on how to comply with this legislation. It’s intended to help all those who care for rabbits to practise good standards of stockmanship to safeguard rabbit welfare.

You and any staff working with rabbits must read, understand and have access to this code. Welfare codes are not law, but if you do not follow them they can be used as evidence in court to show breaches of legislation.

Some of the references to legislation in the codes are out of date. You should refer to the animal welfare legislation listed above and relevant wider legislation as needed.

For more information on legislation and codes of practice for other species, see farm animals: looking after their welfare.

Published 15 October 2015
Last updated 5 October 2023 + show all updates

1. 5 October 2023

   Created new HTML version of the code of recommendations for rabbits to match the PDF version laid in parliament.

2. 15 October 2015

   First published.