Just The Facts:
Pet Products Manufacturing Assoc. in 1996 estimtes over 4 million pet rabbits residing within 1.44 million households. In the 1994 issue of Shelter Sense from HSUS the number of pet rabbits in the US was 3.3 million from the American Pet Products Manufacturers Assoc. If one uses the 1996 estimate of 43,519 rabbits abandoned in US shelters that is only 1.09% of the total pet rabbit population.
"In 1996, about 5.1 million animals-1.5 million dogs, 3.5 million cats and some raccoons, skunks, ferrets, gerbils, were euthanized in shelters, says Merritt Clifton, editor of Animal People, a 15,000-circulation newspaper based in C Wash. That's down tremendously from the 17.8 million put down in 1987, the peak of recorded shelter euthanasia, he says." Animal Supporters At Odds by Martha Waggoner 5/11/97. So we do know that there were less than 100,000 "other" animals euthanized at shelters in 1996.
According to the AVMA there are 59 million cats and 52.9 million dogs kept as pets. So according to this information and that of Animal People, 6% of the total pet cat population was euthanized and 3% of the total pet dog population.
UK Rabbit numbers
"17,500 unwanted rabbits in 1996 passed through rescue centres" Linda Dykes BHRA 1997
"The resolution of rabbit behaviour problems is still, however, a minority interest-rescue societies are inundated with unwanted pet rabbits. Records of the number of rabbits put to sleep because of behaviour problems are scarce, but a survey conducted in 1995 indicated that 16,000 rabbits were given up to UK rescue centres. In 1997 a survey of 200 UK rescue centres, conducted by Morwen Abbott of one known as 'Cottontails', showed that this number had increased to 24,000." Pg. 21-22 "Why Does My Rabbit? By Anne McBride @1998
According to the same book in 1995 the rabbit was the third most popular mammalian pet in the UK (Cat #1 and Dog #2) with over 1.4 million kept as pets in the UK. What is encouraging is that the number of rabbits abandoned per year (24,000 in 1997) is only 1.7% of the total pet rabbit population.