Rabbits and Animal Testing

Its no secret that rabbits have long been a popular test subject. According to the American Anti-Vivisection Society, rabbits used in medical research  more frequently than any other species, currently about 200,000 per year. Many sources cite that the reason for this is that rabbit are easy to breed and easy to handle (I should say non of these "researchers" ever tried to trim a rabbits nails). You may have also noticed that your rabbit hardly ever blinks; this made them convenient for the Draize eye irritant tests. Rabbits have also been the subject of pregnancy testing.

So why am I bringing all of this unpleasantness up? I just saw a PETA campaign against the testing of tobacco products on animals, including rabbits. Among all the arguments I could raise against animal testing, what bothers me most about this is that the dangers of smoking has been known for decades. I can't imagine the usefulness of this research.

I took a class in communications research last semester, and while this differs in many ways from scientific or medical research, one of the first questions you have to ask yourself when starting a project is "is this useful/important?" In this case I say certainly not. I wonder how this was approved/ funded. We already know how bad smoking is; we know that quitting is the only way to avoid the repercussions of smoking.

You can learn more about PETAs campaign against testing of tobacco products here, or contact your government representatives and request legislation against animal testing.