Story Archive

Save Da Wabbit

In 1966, upset over a stolen family dog that had been used in medical research, the U.S. Congress passed a four-page law to regulate laboratories that use dogs and cats. In 1970, it expanded it. Now the Department of Agriculture has amassed 14 pages’ worth of regulations for rabbits alone — including the rabbits magicians pull out of hats. This year the USDA added a requirement that rabbit exhibitors, such as magicians, maintain formal, written plans to save their rabbits in case of disaster. The department boasted that the rule was flexible enough to accommodate solo magicians, but when an expert volunteered to write a disaster plan for a magician’s rabbit, it ran to 28 pages. After a Washington Post article on the matter went online — and less than four hours after the department had defended the rule — the USDA announced that Secretary Tom Vilsack had decided to have the rule reviewed. Magician Gary Maurer had his own plan to deal with the regulation: “I’ll take a piece of paper and put down, ‘Note: Take rabbit with you when you leave.’” (AC/Washington Post) ...A better trick would be to make the USDA disappear.