California legislators are seeking to pass a bill that would prohibit the sale of animals that possess a “cosmetic transgenic trait,” including “glow-in-the-dark” rabbits and other so-called “novelty” pets.
The bill’s author, Assemblywoman Leticia Castillo (R-Calif.), voiced her desire to protect animals and treat them ethically, asserting that genetic engineering should not be used for arbitrary reasons.
“As technology moves forward, our responsibility to protect animals must move forward to,” Castillo said in an August 5th press release.
“Genetic engineering has the potential to improve animal health and support lifesaving research. But animals should never be changed simply to create a product that is more unusual or more profitable,” she continued.
The bill, AB 1382, passed the Assembly in California, but it stalled in committee in the state Senate, where it has been held under submission since August 13th.
In a recent press release, Assemblywoman Castillo noted that biotech startups are already engineering “designer pets,” including “glow-in-the-dark rabbits” and proposals for “unicorn”-like animals.
“‘Transgenic trait’ means a trait that has been deliberately altered, modified, or engineered, through means not possible under natural conditions, by insertion of a foreign gene using genetic engineering methods,” the bill reads. “Notwithstanding any other law, a person shall not import for profit, sell, or offer for sale in this state a transgenic pet animal that possesses a cosmetic transgenic trait.”
The bill broadly defines pet animals to include dogs, cats, rabbits, rodents, reptiles, amphibians, birds, fish and “other species of animal kept for the purpose of being a household pet.”
In a legislative analysis of the bill, the company the Los Angeles Project, a startup up in Austin, Texas, was specifically referenced. The analysis stated that the company was utilizing the gene-editing tool CRISPR with the aim to have “glowing baby bunnies” to eventually sell as pets.
The Los Angeles Project was cofounded by biohacker Josie Zayner and is using gene-editing to work on making “glow-in-the-dark rabbits, hypoallergenic cats and dogs, and possibly, one day, actual unicorns,” according to a February 2025 WIRED article.
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