Hares are different to rabbits though.
Once upon a time rabbits were food for the wealthy. They were imported by rich landowners who built warrens for them and kept them enclosed. They were bred to be eaten.
As the rabbits adapted to the miserable British weather and conditions they started to escape and breed outside of the warrens. Rabbits also became so plentiful that they were no longer a novelty of the wealthy and became too common so they went out of fashion. As the interest in breeding them declined they also managed to escape into the countryside in large numbers.
To feed themselves they ate crops and soon became a pest as they breed rapidly and they have a huge appetite. Some bright spark in Australia thought that introducing the disease myxomatosis would be a good idea as the rabbit problem was out of control there. The disease apparently went to France illegally and soon spread across Europe and eventually arrived in the UK. Apparently it wiped out around 95% of the UK's rabbit population.
Although rabbit is quite tasty and it is similar to chicken there are health hazards associated with them. One is Tularemia or Rabbit Fever which can be passed to humans (it's not known to be a problem in the UK AFAIK). It is recommended to wear rubber gloves while skinning rabbits if you are in an area where this disease is known to be around. The meat should be cooked thoroughly.
Another problem is "rabbit starvation", which is only a problem if rabbit is all you have in your diet. It is caused because the meat is too lean, you will start to suffer and eventually if you don't get fats from other sources you will die.
Jews and Muslims consider rabbit meat to be unclean and won't eat it.
AFAIK eating a rabbit infected with myxomatosis isn't a problem for humans but it's not something that is desirable and I think this is one of the reasons rabbit meat remains unpopular; apart from the fact that we are a nation of animal lovers who think that bunnies are cute and adorable so we shouldn't eat them.
