The Animal Welfare Act 1999 is a law that protects the welfare of all animals. This code outlines the basic level of animal management and care required and includes the internationally accepted ‘five freedoms’.
The Five Freedoms
As a responsible pet owner, you must provide your pet with the Five Freedoms.
What does that mean for rabbits? How do you implement them for your pets?
1. Freedom from hunger or thirst.
Every rabbit must always have access to clean fresh water. You must provide proper and sufficient food for good health and weight.
This should include at least 80% hay and grass. *See our care page for nutritional considerations (coming soon).
2. Freedom from discomfort and inadequate shelter.
Shelter must be weather proof, free from drafts, wind, and rain and full sun. It must be both predator proof and rabbit proof so your rabbits can’t nibble or dig their way out. As an absolute minimum your rabbits must be able to take at least three full hops, stand up on their hind legs without their ears being squashed and to flop out to their full length in their habitat. In extremes of weather, rabbits need even more care and attention. *See our care page to get ideas for safe and enriched habitats for your rabbits (coming soon).
3. Freedom from disease and injury.
Get prompt vet treatment if your rabbit is sick or injured. This freedom also includes preventative health measures such as an annual vet check, vaccination against RCD and desexing for both bucks and does. We recommend that you find a good vet for your rabbits. Not every vet practice is used to seeing rabbits, so find one that is, before you actually need them. Also keeping their environment clean and free from any hazards can help to stop injuries and disease. Rabbits need a quick ‘MOT’ everyday. They are prey animals so often hide ill health, small changes in habits can alert you to a bigger problem. Act fast and don’t delay a trip to the vet if you suspect a problem. This may mean after hours vet care.
*See our health pages for what to look out for and our tried and trusted vets (coming soon).
4. Freedom from distress and pain.
Always handle your rabbits in a way that won’t injure or cause unreasonable pain or distress. Rabbits require specific handling techniques. They have strong hind legs and fragile spines, handling must take this into account. Children must be supervised around rabbits and handling is better left to the adult carers. Your rabbits habitat must not be a potential source of distress or pain either, it must provide security and calm. Being prey animals, rabbits stress easily, so it’s important to avoid this within their environment.
*See our care pages for handling tips, bonding with your rabbit and how to have a rabbit friendly child (coming soon).
5. Freedom to display normal behaviour.
You are obligated to meet your rabbit's behavioural needs and provide an environment so they can display normal behaviour. Some good ways of doing this is to provide adequate exercise and enrichment. Toys, tunnels, digging boxes etc provide opportunity to play and exercise in a way rabbits are naturally predisposed to. This also means that as social animals, rabbits should always live with another of their species in all but the rarest of cases. A desexed doe/buck combination is usually the most fail-safe. Remember ‘a hutch is not enough’. Leaving a single rabbit in a tiny hutch at the end of the garden is not acceptable.
*See our care page for behaviour, bonding and enrichment tips (coming soon).
These freedoms are requirements under the Animal Welfare Act 1999 (links to the official legislation website) and you may be prosecuted if you fail in your duty as a pet owner to provide them.
Researching how to meet these freedoms is exciting and very fulfilling when you see how happy your rabbits are as a result of their implementation.
