It probably is dead, which still might be ok, if it died of natural causes; it could just be drugged, but that would be bad because who knows how they did it, and unnecessary sedation can't be a good idea.
I think it does send the right message. I called proctor gamble once, and they said that they only test on smaller, less important, animals, like guinea pigs. They also said "its not like we're testing on dogs and cats or something" I have never seen someone back-peddle as fast as when I started talking about my pig, and asking if that was an official position, and could I quote her? Unfortunately, they make tons of household products. I tore around the house later that day, and had an overflowing trash can full of things I made my mother swear to never buy again (this was like 5-6 years ago at least, and they've only gotten bigger since)
Here they are, and this isn't even all of them, they advertise on the website "nearly 300 brands you know and trust":
tide, secret, charmin, gillette, always, alldays, old spice, cheer, thermacare, luvs, clairol, pantene, head and shoulders, vidal sassoon, herbal essences, pert plus, physique, infusium 23, zest, olay, ivory, noxema, safegaurd, camay, hugo boss, eukanuba, gain, bounty, cascade, dawn, salvo, ivory, swiffer, mr clean, downy, febreze, bounce, dreft, puffs, pampers, millstone, prilosec, vicks, metamucil, peptobismol, pur, crest, glide, scope, fixodent, gleem, asacol, actonel, dantrium IV, pringles, folgers, cover girl, era, iams, giorgio beverly hills, max factor, macrodantin, tampax, men's choice, SK-II, and ultresse, nice and easy
These days, they advertise how they are sharing their results with other companies to avoid duplicate testing, and have developed alternatives for some of the cruelest tests, like skin corrosion, and only do the ones required by law. They also have groups listed that are developing alternatives independently that you can donate to listed-Johns Hopkins center for Alternatives to Animal Testing, Humane Society of the US. I guess its a step up, from who cares we just use guinea pigs. Still, it makes me wonder what I would do if I had to find alternatives to all of the products a company as big as this makes.