The Rabbit Test

Back in the era of the “Roaring 20’s” a pregnancy test was invented using rabbits. The way it worked was the urine from the concerned woman was injected into a female rabbit. If the ovaries of the rabbit swelled because of the Human Chorionic Gonadtropin (hCG) present in the woman’s urine then the woman was positive for pregnancy. The problem with this method was the rabbit was killed in the process of opening up the ovaries whether the woman was pregnant or not.

For some reason the phrase “the rabbit died” came to mean a positive test for pregnancy. Later on in the late 1930’s researchers found a way to detect if the rabbits ovaries had swelled or not without having to kill the rabbit. But since the phrase “the rabbit died” was such a fun way of saying a woman was pregnant, it has continued to this very day. For instance, the rock group Aerosmith in their 1975 song “Sweet Emotion” has this line: “Tellin' other things, but your girlfriend lied; Can't catch me cause the rabbit done died“.

Progress was made in pregnancy detection so rabbits were no longer needed. Tests were made using a mini-science lab consisting of numerous vials with different powders and liquids that were mixed together and stirred with the woman’s urine to finally detect any presence of hCG.

Today’s home pregnancy tests are much easier, superior, and require just one step. The strip that the urine is applied to is coated with monoclonal antibodies in such a way as to detect the presence of hCG.

Again we see how the history of rabbits has been intertwined with that of the human race. We are so pleased that not only are rabbits not used for pregnancy tests any longer, but all testing of rabbits in the laboratory are at an all time low.