"Early evidence suggestively linking cholesterol to heart disease also came from animals. In 1913, the Russian pathologist Nikolaj Anitschkow reported that he could induce atherosclerotic-type lesions in rabbits by feeding them huge amounts of cholesterol. This experiment became quite famous and was widely replicated on all sorts of animals, including cats, sheep, cattle, and horses, leading to the widespread view that cholesterol in the diet--such as one finds in eggs, red meat, and shellfish--must cause atherosclerosis. Contemporaries noted that rabbits, along with most of the animals used in follow-up experiments, are all herbivores. They therefore do not normally eat animal foods and are not biologically designed to metabolize them. By contrast, when the experiment was replicated on dogs (which eat meat as humans do), the animals demonstrated an ability to regulate and excrete extra cholesterol."

Nina Teicholz - The Big Fat Surprise - Page 22