How to Help Rabbits During the Year of the Rabbit and Beyond

The lunar new year on January 22, 2023, ushers in the Year of the Rabbit in the Chinese zodiac. Rabbits are socially complex, intelligent animals with unique personalities, just like dogs and cats. In their natural habitat, they keep meticulously clean burrows and spend their time foraging for fresh, leafy food and interacting with other members of their warren.

But right now, all over the world, rabbits are suffering in laboratories and on fur farms. Exploited because of their gentle nature, rabbits are subjected to harsh chemical tests, their hair is torn out by the fistful, and they languish in barren wire cages. From this page, you’ll be able to complete multiple PETA actions that help rabbits used for experiments and fashion. Keep reading to learn more, or click the banner below to start taking action to help them:

Rabbits Used in Experiments

More than 161,000 rabbits are abused in U.S. laboratories every year.

Despite the availability of modern, humane, and effective alternatives, rabbits are still tormented in the notorious Draize eye-irritancy test, in which pesticides and other substances are applied to the animals’ eyes, often causing redness, swelling, discharge, ulceration, hemorrhaging, cloudiness, or blindness.

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At the University of Pittsburgh, a PETA eyewitness saw rabbits being mutilated by a plastic surgeon who cut ligaments in their knees, contorted their legs into an unnatural position, and then inserted a wire into the knees to hold the legs in place. The purpose? To cause intentional trauma to the knee joints.

Once these experiments are over, the rabbits are killed.

Experimenters frequently use rabbits because they’re mild-tempered and easy to handle. Below, you can speak up for rabbits suffering in experiments.

Rabbits Used for Fashion

Rabbits used for fur or angora live in hellish conditions. Eyewitness investigators who’ve visited Chinese fur farms have found the following:

• Rabbits exhibiting rapid, open-mouthed breathing brought on by heat stress or respiratory disease
• Animals suffering from severe skin irritation and infections
• Rabbits being denied treatment for sores, malnutrition, blindness, neurological damage, and more
• Terrified rabbits living in urine-encrusted cages with feces piled up beneath them
• Animals so sick and weak that they didn’t even respond to being touched

Rabbits—and all other animals—are not ours to wear. If you want to learn more about the ways rabbits are exploited for fur and angora, click on the button below:

If you want to help animals daily, there are tons of ways to get involved. Follow PETA on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to stay up to date on our latest campaigns; subscribe to PETA News to get weekly updates on our efforts; and be sure to complete the PETA action alerts and pledges below—they all allow you to help rabbits suffering in experiments and the fashion industry, and can be completed with the quick click of a button.

Rabbits Need Your Help—Hop to It!

There are multiple opportunities to help. As soon as you take one action below, another will automatically appear in its place.

Just enter your information once, and then keep clicking the “Send Message” button until you’ve completed them all. Once you’ve finished, be sure to share this page with your friends, family members, and social media followers. Ask them to join you in taking action for rabbits.

 
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PETA Exposé Uncovers Mutilated Rabbits, Monkeys Driven Mad in University Labs

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