Leading small animal charity, the Rabbit Welfare Association & Fund, believes there's a massive sales opportunity for pet retailers who promote the welfare of domestic rabbits.

By selling exercise runs alongside the right size of hutch, shops will not only help rabbits lead healthy lives they will also boost profits, says Rae Todd, of the RWAF.

What have been the successes of 2013?

'A Hutch is Not Enough' - our campaign to dispel the old misconceptions about how rabbits should be kept as pets - has continued to raise awareness of the importance of adequate housing and exercise space, keeping rabbits in pairs or groups, a diet based on hay or grass and everything else that allows domestic rabbits to display their natural behaviours. There is a still a long way to go but we are seeing evidence that knowledge amongst rabbit owners is growing and the myth that they are a cheap and easy child's pet that only need a hutch and a handful of dry food each day is starting to subside.

Another success for the RWAF this year has been the opportunity to work with some fantastic organisations such as Wood Green, PDSA, Blue Cross, Burgess Pet Care and The RSPCA. The main reason for the neglect that domestic rabbits so often suffer is ignorance - many owners simply don't know any better - so the more like-minded organisations we can work with, the more chance we have of making people aware of the facts about rabbits' needs as a species.

The launch of the University of Edinburgh research on muesli proved what we have known for a long time and it generated a lot of opportunities to educate rabbit owners about proper diets.

Our annual Hutch and Run competition saw more great entries and a very worthy and versatile winner from Liberta. We hope that this will lead to an increase in the manufacture of more suitable accommodation along with a shift in marketing by the pet industry. As well as being more suited to rabbits' needs, large, secure enclosures are better business for the pet trade, as is selling rabbits in pairs and stressing the importance of a hay based diet. Knowledgeable owners will be customers for life, regularly purchasing hay and good quality food as well as toys for their rabbits' enclosure.

What are the challenges still facing the industry?

We understand that because of decades of misconceptions about the needs of domestic rabbits, it can be difficult for retailers to convince customers to move from buying a single rabbit and a hutch to investing in a set-up that will not only give their rabbits the life to which they are suited but will also improve the pet keeping experience for the owner. But good welfare is good business, and selling rabbits to live alone and confined to a hutch is neither. The industry needs to be able to provide the right care advice and products to their customers and to take a brave step forward in promoting the right messages and only selling products that allow the rabbits to meet their fundamental needs.

Rescue centres all have minimum re-homing requirements and will usually only re-home in pairs. They spend time educating their adopters about why the correct housing, companionship and diet are so vital and refuse homes where welfare needs are not going to be met. The challenge therefore for retailers is to make these standards consistent across the whole industry. Perhaps retailers can look at the education and sales pitches used by rescues to help with their own. If customers know that retailers are not trying to sell bigger and better products to make more money for themselves but to meet the welfare needs of the animals then they will be more likely to make the right choice.

What are the opportunities going forwards?

The most obvious opportunity is getting rabbits out of hutches and into exercise runs! How many rabbit owners have a hutch but no run? It's a huge sales opportunity for retailers. Charities like ourselves are all saying that rabbits need space to exercise. This should be an easy win for retailers, showing their customers the advice given by trusted welfare organisations and promoting exercise runs as an essential feature of rabbits' accommodation. Rabbits keep different hours than humans so the run should be connected to the living space permanently and be predator-proof. So there is a huge untapped market not just in exercise runs but in systems to join the hutch and run and toys and hidey holes to be placed in this larger enclosure. We are amazed that more pet retailers are not plucking this low hanging fruit!

What are the reasons for optimisim?

The launch of The RSPCA/Bristol research and the start of a stakeholder working group so that organisations across all areas of the industry from retailer to rescue can work together is a great start. We are really excited about this and are looking forward to being involved in this process, which we hope is the start of the 'rabbit revolution'.

From the huge amount of postings on our social network pages we are seeing an huge upsurge in knowledgeable, welfare conscious owners, many of whom will currently look anywhere but a pet shop to buy and extend their accommodation. Instead they will convert sheds or build their own. If pet shops can meet the demand of this growing number of rabbit-savvy owners, whilst at the same time taking time to provide the right information and products to less knowledgeable owners, then welfare standards for domestic rabbits will improve greatly, as will the retailer's profits!