Rabbit Testing and the Law
# Rabbit Testing and the Law
Rabbits are among the most-used animals in American laboratories, and the only major lab species with no federal law written for them. This page separates what is actually law from what is still a bill, because the difference matters.
This covers all animal testing, not just cosmetics. Statuses checked October 28, 2026.
## What is actually law
**FDA Modernization Act 2.0 (enacted December 2022).** Ended the long-standing federal requirement that experimental drugs be tested on animals before human trials. Drug sponsors may now use scientifically valid non-animal methods instead. It did not ban animal testing — it removed the mandate.
## One vote away: FDA Modernization Act 3.0
The follow-up to 2.0 would force the FDA to update its own regulations to match the 2022 law, ending mandatory animal-testing language in the rules.
- **S. 355** passed the Senate on December 17, 2025. - **H.R. 2821** passed the House on July 20, 2026, and was received in the Senate on July 21, 2026. - **What remains:** the Senate must pass the House version so both chambers approve the same text before it can go to the President. No vote is currently scheduled.
This is a bill, not yet a law — but it is the furthest any replacement bill has ever gotten.
## Still in committee
**SPARE Act (H.R. 1802, introduced March 3, 2025).** Would ban all animal research and testing by federal agencies, contractors, and grantees — with a 3-year phase-in for biomedical work — and require labs to release animals to sanctuaries or rescues within one year. Species-neutral: it covers rabbits, but it is not rabbit-specific.
**Replace Animal Tests Act (H.R. 6660, introduced December 11, 2025).** Would require federal agencies to use non-animal methods for regulatory testing whenever scientifically satisfactory ones exist and are accepted. The rabbit pyrogen test — which uses rabbits to test drugs for fever-causing contamination — is the classic example of a test with a non-animal replacement.
**Humane Cosmetics Act (H.R. 1657, reintroduced February 2025).** Would ban cosmetic testing on animals. Cosmetics is one corner of the issue; the bills above cover all testing.
## The contrast: dogs and cats have bills. Rabbits do not.
The PUPPS Act (introduced September 22, 2025) would ban breeding dogs for research and require adoption instead of euthanasia. The bipartisan COMPACT Act (introduced September 23, 2025) would cut federal funding for dog and cat testing. Both are bills, not law.
No rabbit-specific federal testing-ban bill exists. Rabbits, among the most-used lab animals, still have no federal protection of their own.
## Policy, not law: the NIH rehoming window
**NIH Notice NOT-OD-25-163 (effective October 1, 2025).** Lets NIH-funded labs charge retirement and rehoming costs to their awards. That is NIH policy, not a federal law — it does not force any lab to rehome a single animal, and rehoming remains the lab's choice. It is, however, the opening BluesBunny is using to become a rehoming partner for retired lab rabbits.
## Open for comment
The FDA has proposed a terminology rule that would drop animal-testing language from its regulations (docket FDA-2026-N-5347). Public comments close December 7, 2026. A proposed rule is not a ban — but it is a live chance to weigh in.
## California: rabbits named, then left out
California already treats rabbits as companion animals in one law: the pet-store sales bans (AB 485 in 2017, AB 2152 in 2021) named dogs, cats, and rabbits together.
But the state's research-animal release law, Education Code section 66017.7, requires public and independent colleges and universities to offer dogs and cats to rescues before euthanizing them at the end of a study. Rabbits are not included. Extending that one statute to rabbits is the most winnable animal bill in this state — and the reason the sanctuary has to exist before the law changes.
## The gap, in one paragraph
No federal law bans rabbit testing. No rabbit-specific bill exists. The vehicles that would help rabbits are species-neutral bills — FDA Modernization Act 3.0, the SPARE Act, and the Replace Animal Tests Act — plus one California statute that needs a single word added. Until those pass, the work is building the place rabbits go when the testing stops.