This is not about animal rights, thought the bunnies getting their eyelids cut off would be sympathetic to the argument. It is about good science vs. bad science. Fallacious data regarding medications, garnered through animal experimentation, leads to injury and death in humans. The simple fact is, animals are not little humans, and there is no one-to-one mapping of drug or procedural effects in animals to their effects in humans. We're a whole different animal.
Not only does animal experimentation divert limited resources away from valid science, but by delaying innovation, therapies and cures, it prolongs human suffering and increases mortality. Animal experimentation has misled researchers for centuries, confounding our understanding of the human body and the diseases that plague it.

Animal experimentation consumes half of all research spending, for those of you who like to 'follow the money'.