The International Day of the Rabbit should raise awarenessfor the protection of hares. the protection of hares in the wildas well as rabbits in the wild. The growing rabbit families at the Gut Aiderbichlsanctuaries are spoilt with special treats and even more attention on Rabbit Day.

Rabbits are handed in on an ongoing basis and every single long-eared rabbit has its own individual story. For example, the siblings Alola, Dobby and Ginny became Aiderbichl animals a few months ago. Apparently, the rabbits had been sold to a family as dwarf rabbits. However, the young rabbits grew bigger and bigger and could not be kept in a species-appropriate way. Together, the family decided to contact Gut Aiderbichl’s animal emergency centre to find a solution to their animal problem.

A blood test has revealed that Alola has stargazer disease (Encephalitozoon cuniculi) and that her neck is a little crooked as a result. However, no other neurological symptoms were observed.
Stargazer disease is a parasitic disease that mainly affects rabbits in Europe. The most common neurological symptoms are various disorders of movement coordination, such as the typical tilted head posture, swaying gait with rotations around its own body axis and jerky or oscillating eye movements. The disease cannot be cured, but the progression of the pathogens can be contained with medication. It is important that as little time as possible elapses between suspicion and medical treatment and that action is taken very quickly.

Urgent mediation desired

We are urgently looking for a place with loving people who want to look after our Alola. Depending on stress or changes in the weather, Alola sometimes holds her head a little crooked, but she hops merrily through the enclosure and wants hands to stroke her tenderly. Click here for the adoption questionnaire.

How many animals suffer in animal experiments in Germany every year? In 2022, a total of 4,207,231 animals were “consumed” in German laboratories. In Austria, all animal experiments on great apes (including gibbons) have been banned since 2006. All other animal experiments are still permitted in Austria. Today, animal experiments are regulated by the Animal Experiments Act 2012 (TVG 2012).

In the past two centuries, the rabbit has contributed to important discoveries in medicine. In 1885, Louis Pasteur conducted research with rabbits and dogs. The result was a vaccine against rabies. The discovery of insulin is also linked to experiments on rabbits and dogs. Experiments with the animals provided medicine with the necessary understanding of the effect of insulin on blood sugar levels and the development of new therapies. Incidentally, it was also experiments on rabbits that confirmed that taking L-dopa (messenger substance dopamine in the brain) can alleviate the symptoms of Parkinson’s patients.

At 3%, rabbits currently play a subordinate role as laboratory animals in research laboratories.

New – Rabbits for the production of antibodies

Of late, 80% of experiments with rabbits have focussed on the production of antibodies. For this purpose, the rabbit is injected with an antigen. Compared to other laboratory animals such as mice or rats, rabbits produce particularly strong antibodies. More and more antibodies are also being produced using the blood of llamas and alpacas or antibody production is already possible in vitro.

The rabbit was used for the painful Draize eye irritation test. This test has been performed using the chicken egg test for several years and no rabbit has to suffer any more agony.

According to EU law, animal testing has been prohibited for the authorisation of cosmetic products since 2013 and there is an EU-wide ban on the marketing of cosmetics whose ingredients have been tested on animals.

The meaning of the guinea pig has changed?

In biomedical research, mice, rats and even fish have replaced rabbits as guinea pigs.

In Germany, over 1.8 million mice, almost 250,000 fish, over 1,150,000 rats, over 65,000 rabbits, 2,877 dogs, 2,267 primates and 538 cats died in 2022 for the purpose of basic research. Animals are artificially made ill in order to study various human diseases.

What do animals feel and do they feel at all?

Whether small fish, rabbits or whatever animal breeds are kept and tortured in the experimental centres – they feel insecurity and fear, they are stressed in their cages and they suffer for the good of humanity.

All animals in research centres deserve attention and the effort to abolish animal experiments.