Rabbits are the third most commonly used laboratory animal in Europe, used primarily in safety testing. Applying the Three Rs (Replace, Reduce, Refine) framework to rabbit research has made significant but incomplete progress.
Laboratory rabbits face welfare challenges at every stage of the research process. Rabbits are highly stress-sensitive animals with complex social needs and strong escape drive - characteristics that make laboratory restraint particularly distressing. Individual housing in small cages prevents the social interaction and movement that rabbits require for psychological wellbeing. Painful procedures including blood collection from ear veins, injection protocols, and tissue sampling are often conducted with minimal analgesia based on the assumption that rabbits tolerate procedures stoically. The Draize eye test causes corneal damage and pain that is difficult to quantify but clearly real. Progress on Three Rs implementation has been significant but uneven across research categories, with commercial product safety testing lagging behind biomedical research.