Rabbits in American Laboratories: The Numbers
In fiscal year 2025, research facilities in the United States reported using 99,264 rabbits and holding 9,477 more, according to USDA APHIS. Rabbits are the second most used named species after guinea pigs. Use has fallen 25 percent since 2021. The share used in painful procedures with no pain relief has not changed.
Rabbits used in US research facilities
Last updated 2026-05-28
| Fiscal year | Held, not used | Used | Used in painful procedures with no relief | Share of used | Reported total | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 12,629 | 132,887 | 2,700 | 2.0% | 145,516 | Report |
| 2022 | 10,447 | 116,753 | 3,000 | 2.6% | 127,200 | Report |
| 2023 | 10,262 | 114,768 | 2,275 | 2.0% | 125,030 | Report |
| 2024 | 8,643 | 106,400 | 2,617 | 2.5% | 115,043 | Report |
| 2025 | 9,477 | 99,264 | 2,369 | 2.4% | 108,741 | Report |
Source: USDA APHIS Research Facility Annual Report Summaries, fiscal years 2021 through 2025. "Used" is the sum of the report's Columns C, D and E. The reported total also counts animals held during the year and not used.
Two findings
Rabbit use fell 25 percent in four years. That is real progress and it should be said.
The share of rabbits used in procedures involving pain or distress with no pain relief, the report's Column E, has not moved. It was 2.0 percent of rabbits used in 2021 and 2.4 percent in 2025, between one in fifty and one in forty every year. Fewer rabbits, the same share of them in pain. That is a specific, sourced finding, and nobody else publishes it.
Where rabbits rank
In fiscal 2025, facilities reported using about 110,000 guinea pigs, 99,000 rabbits, 61,000 hamsters, 61,000 nonhuman primates, 38,000 dogs and 11,000 cats. Rabbits are the second most used named species in American laboratories. More rabbits than primates. Two and a half times as many rabbits as dogs. Nearly nine times as many rabbits as cats.
Seventeen states, California among them, have laws that route research dogs and cats to adoption. Those laws are written for dogs and cats. Rabbits have none.
What rabbits are used for
Pyrogen testing. Injecting a substance and measuring fever to detect contamination. Replaced by the monocyte activation test and recombinant Factor C. Validated more than twenty years ago.
The Draize test. Developed in 1944, the Draize rabbit eye and skin irritation test remains the listed method under OECD Test Guidelines 404 and 405. Replacements exist: reconstructed human cornea-like epithelium, reconstructed human epidermis, organotypic assays, in chemico methods, and in silico prediction.
Polyclonal antibody production. Increasingly replaced by recombinant antibody technology, now routinely designed computationally.
Developmental and reproductive toxicity. Rabbits are the standard second species. The hardest to replace and where the newest work is happening.
Atherosclerosis and ocular disease models. Where organ-on-chip and human tissue models are advancing fastest.