Uh, I have some bubble bursting news about “research.” 
There is of course plenty of life saving research going on: vaccines, colic, genetics, whatever, but one thing to remember is that academia is basically publish or perish. Schools tend to feel this makes them look good, and frankly, lots of PhDs love their subject matter and hate teaching, so a contract that guarantees they’re expected/allowed to research is two thumbs up. Getting a PhD? You have to publish. In a grad program? You likely expect/want to publish, so your professors are going to be expected to have something going you can co-author on. Finishing your veterinary residency? You have to publish. And while you are publishing? You are expected to keep up with all your other duties.
All that to say, there are a ton of people out there looking for simple, quick, low stress studies, rather than or in addition to the next major break through. The “littler” stuff is both very important and a major relief from the higher stress work. Groundbreaking research is for people with about 16 students or co-authors working under them. Most people are not that. Most ongoing research is smaller and simpler than you’d expect and does not require a million dollars worth of funding. Most of it looks far more like proving anecdotal evidence true or false…
Between students, academia, residents, whatever, there are in fact lots of people who are not expecting to cure cancer with their research. Equine studies, Nutrition (how does lack of vibrissae affect feed intake/feed type chosen, etc.), ACVIM - equine neurology, Behavior. All fields where I think someone would/should be interested in publishing this work.
Why do I think there’s no research? (Again, if you can find it, share it!)
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It’s niche. Nobody other than a minority of horse people, cat people, and animal rights people care. Now that it’s an international rule? It may finally break out of that niche group and get some interest from outsiders who might take it on.
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I honestly don’t think many researchers believe it has credence… Let me put it this way, as a veterinarian, this is something we discuss. Why? Because owners come in and ask about this after reading it on the internet. So, at least once every couple of years the veterinary forum I’m on bubbles up because someone asks if this is a real thing or an internet thing. Then it dies down. I have never seen a veterinarian present a case of “missing/lost/clipped whiskers causing clinical signs” with anything other than a history of “the owner is concerned, but I suspect it’s the ear mites, trauma, other things - anyone dealt with this before?”
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Now I’m going to get controversial. The majority of people concerned about the dangers of whisker clipping are totally civil, level-headed folks who just want to do the right thing. The minority are absolute ****ing nightmares. I know of at least two vet practices who had to call in lawyers and law enforcement, after clipping the whiskers on cats in the course of treatment (I believe abscesses in both cases?). The threats and attacks were that bad. Were the cats clinically ill or harmed from this whisker clipping? Was it done intentionally or with ill will? No, but that didn’t matter to these die hards. They thought whisker clipping was evil and somebody would pay. Publishing a study with a finding they disagree with? Well, best of luck to you.
So, at the end of the day, it’s niche, the anecdotal evidence is pretty “meh,” and the group who cares the loudest about it has a small but frightening core group who will describe to you in detail how they hope you kill yourself. (I’m serious about this. I have read the e-mails. I didn’t sleep well for a week.)
Whisker clipping and sky diving are hardly on the same planet as far as risks. The absence of a study doesn’t mean whisker clipping isn’t bad. It also doesn’t mean whisker clipping isn’t good. And all those FEI vets voting for it? Well, to me that’s easily explained: people either don’t care/think it’s silly, or people REALLY care, so just get rid of it. In five years, no one will remember all this fracas. That does not mean those FEI vets feel very strongly that whisker clipping is a welfare or health issue. Anyone who has been in a large organization will tell you that you vote on the most mundane things just to get them off the docket and a unanimous vote is often not a round of applause, but a vague waving away of the hand so you can move onto other things.
