Blind,
Red light in low doses preserves your night vision. Has to do with rods and cones etc. Basically, low level red light does not blow out your night vision and that is a very useful thing. The military buys the Photons in red so they can see at night and not attract attention from longer distances. They call it "blackout conditions" were red is the color to use. Turn a white light on and you can be seen from long distances which is not a good thing.
I built a 1 watt LS in a 2D Mag for a friend of mine. From what I understand, animals are not distracted by the light but it reflects off their eyes so he can see them. I guess it works well at 5AM walkign through the woods. It is very bright so if you look at it directly, it will affect your night vison.
When Wal-Mart gets their restock of Dorcy AAA lights in, I will be putting a red Luxeon in place of the 5mm LED. This should give me a nice red light to get up and go to the bathroom without waking my wife.