Science!

You have to read all the way to the end of this NYT story on Pepsi and Coke cutting back on animal testing (Animal testing? Yes.) to find this gem:

In January, Roll International, the company that makes Pom Wonderful pomegranate juice, agreed to cease tests on animals after PETA disclosed a 2005 study financed by the company that tested the juice to see if it might relieve artificially induced erectile dysfunction in rabbits.

Let me just enumerate all the ways in which this single sentence short-circuited my brain:

1) A juice company is spending good money to find out if its juice has health effects, and the effect they look for is relief of erectile dysfunction. Not looking for improved cardiovascular health, better digestion, younger-looking skin . . . . Nope. We just wanna cure erectile dysfunction.

2) In rabbits.

3) That's been artificially induced.

4) In rabbits.

5) And then they hid the study until PETA, knowing an opportunity for ridicule when they see one, smoked it out.

It leaves me wondering so many things, such as how they artificially induce erectile dysfunction in rabbits. And how they verify that they've done this.