Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Rabbits today are used for different reasons. They are often held as pet rabbits but they also can be found at zoos, in laboratories and as a producing animal where their meat, fur or wool are used.

All rabbits in Sweden are protected by the Swedish animal welfare legislation. For rabbits held as pets, in laboratories or at zoos there are more detailed rules or regulations that defines for example how much space the rabbit must have or how the cage should be enriched. For rabbits in the production there is no detailed legislation, which is a problem because their welfare could be hard to secure when the producers do not have any guidelines to follow.

Rabbits are social animals and therefore they should have the company from either one other rabbit, or from the owner. Their social needs could at zoos, in laboratories or in the production be hard to fulfill by a human because of lack of time and resources. Rabbits also are explorative and should have objects to manipulate and gnaw. In the wild they dig big warrens and also the domestic rabbit still have their digging behaviour and should be given the possibility to dig.

The purpose of this paper was to see if the Swedish legislation meets the natural needs of a rabbit. The method that was used was a literature study. Several scientific papers about the rabbits natural needs and behaviours and the collected facts was compared to Swedish legislation.

The conclusion is that the legislation says that the rabbit should have an enriched environment, which is good, but it would be better if it were said which kind of enrichment they should have and how they should get it. The legislation does not fulfill the rabbits need of space, they must have more space either with a bigger cage or pen or if it has the possibility to daily move outside the cage. Their social needs also must be fulfilled.