Rabbit

(Draft chapter summary. Not for distribution or quotation.)

I tell the story of how an animal protection crusade built on a carefully drawn image of an animal—in this case fluffy, innocent rabbits—rippled out to help many other animal species. In a brilliant public pressure campaign, the activist Henry Spira asked, “How many rabbits does Revlon blind for beauty’s sake?” Soon, Revlon, other cosmetics companies, and chemical manufacturers were contributing to a fund to spur research into nonanimal safety tests for beauty products, industrial chemicals, and medicines. The search for nonanimal testing now benefits lab rodents, dogs, and even horseshoe crabs, and with more accurate tests, people too. Basic research scientists may still rely on animals for new discoveries in coming years, but technical and legal advances will soon shutter product safety testing labs.