UNDERCOVER INVESTIGATION EXPOSES CRUEL AND WASTEFUL RABBIT PYROGEN TESTING
Release 7/7/2025 - A new undercover investigation by LCA exposes the cruelty of Rabbit Pyrogen Tests (RPT's) at a North American toxicology research facility. Pyrogens are fever causing substances that can be found in medications. RPT's are used to ensure medications are pyrogen free. During pyrogen testing, rabbits are forced into restraints, have test items injected into their ear veins, and are monitored with an anal temperature probe to determine if they develop a fever. U.S. RESIDENTS: TAKE ACTION
WATCH AND SHARE THE UNDERCOVER VIDEO
THE NIGHTMARE LIVES OF RABBITS USED IN PYROGEN TESTING
Rabbit pyrogen testing is inherently cruel. Purpose-bred rabbits live their entire lives in cages at research facilities. They are only taken out of their cages for the pyrogen test and other pyrogen test related procedures, like ear tagging or having their weight taken. During most of the procedures they are locked in restraint devices. All of their natural instinctive behavours, like digging, running, jumping and socializing, are thwarted. When the rabbits can no longer be used for testing, they are killed. At this facility, the rabbits were killed via an injection of pentobarbital into an ear vein and then necropsied.
The investigation documented:
- Rabbits struggling as they are put into restrainers.
- Rabbits kicking in the restrainers, putting them at risk of broken backs.
- Repeated ear injections causing ears to become scarred, bloody and hardened over time. The damaged ear makes it difficult for technicians to find ear veins for injections and subsequently, the rabbits suffer being poked multiple times with needles.
- A technician struggling for over ten minutes to find an ear vein to inject pentobarbital (the killing agent) into a rabbit.
- Rabbits being killed and necropsied in front of other live rabbits.
 Injection with bloody ears |
 Bloody ear closeup |
 Dead rabbit |
 Ear vein injection |
 Rabbit struggling |
 Kicking in restrainer |
 Restraint device |
 Restraint devices |
RABBIT PYROGEN TESTING IS WASTEFUL
It is estimated approximately 400,000 rabbits are used worldwide in RPT's each year. It is common practice to use three rabbits to test a single product. Rabbits are purpose-bred for animal research. New Zealand Whites, sold to research companies by vendors like Charles River and Inotiv, are a common breed found in laboratories.
Add for a research rabbit from the Inotiv website
Because pyrogens could be present in any medications or substances that are ingested into humans, most of the test items used in RPT's are products already on the market. These test items need to be retested each time a new batch of the substance is produced. However, there are non-animal alternatives available. The Monocyte Activation Test (MAT) is a reliable, non-animal alternative to rabbit pyrogen testing.
EUROPEAN PHARMACOPOEIA STOPS RABBIT PYROGEN TESTING
In June 2024, the European Pharmacopoeia, which is responsible for the quality control of medications in Europe, announced it would stop rabbit pyrogen testing by July 1, 2025. Medicine manufacturers would be responsible for selecting non-animal-based methods for pyrogen testing that would traditionally be done on rabbits (like the MAT). A press release issued by the European Pharmacopoeia in July 2024 states in part, "...the EPC is committed to the reduction of animal usage wherever possible in its pharmacopeial testing. This historic step is an illustration of this commitment and will have a significant impact on the replacement, reduction and refinement of animal tests..."
In North America, no such standards exist. Despite alternatives to RPT's being readily available, pharmaceutical companies and other organizations are not moving away from animal testing and are still choosing to engage in this cruel and needless suffering.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
U.S. RESIDENTS: Click here to contact your elected officials to urge them to stop cruel and needless animal testing and support non-animal testing alternatives.
Don't live in the U.S.? You can still help! Sign LCA's petition against animal testing!
