Animal Experimentation and Research Commons^™

Refining The Precautionary Framework, Jonathan Birch

Animal Sentience

Most of the commentators so far agree that the precautionary principle can be usefully applied to the question of animal sentience. I consider various ways of refining my proposals in light of the suggestions. I amend BAR to implement C. Brown’s suggestion that the scope of animal welfare law should be extensible by phylogenetic inference from orders in which credible indicators of sentience are found. In response to C. Brown, Mallatt, and Woodruff, I amend ACT to allow that a single credible indicator may sometimes call for urgent further investigation rather than immediate protection. In response …

Animal Sentience And The Precautionary Principle, Jonathan Birch

Animal Sentience

In debates about animal sentience, the precautionary principle is often invoked. The idea is that when the evidence of sentience is inconclusive, we should “give the animal the benefit of the doubt” or “err on the side of caution” in formulating animal protection legislation. Yet there remains confusion as to whether it is appropriate to apply the precautionary principle in this context, and, if so, what “applying the precautionary principle” means in practice regarding the burden of proof for animal sentience. Here I construct a version of the precautionary principle tailored to the question of animal sentience together with a …

Self-Harm In Laboratory-Housed Primates: Where Is The Evidence That The Animal Welfare Act Amendment Has Worked?, Jonathan Balcombe, Hope Ferdowsian, Debra Durham

Jonathan Balcombe, PhD

The 1985 amendment to the United States Animal Welfare Act (AWA) to promote psychological well being of primates in the laboratory represents an acknowledgment of an important welfare problem concerning nonhuman animals. How effective has this amendment been? Perhaps the best-known contributor to psychological distress in primates in the laboratory is nonsocial housing; yet, available analyses suggest that little progress has been made in avoiding single-caging of these animals. Another way to assess psychological well being is to examine rates of self-abusive behavior in laboratory primates. If the AWA has been effective, then post-AWA self-harm rates might be lower than …

Self-Harm In Laboratory-Housed Primates: Where Is The Evidence That The Animal Welfare Act Amendment Has Worked?, Jonathan Balcombe, Hope Ferdowsian, Debra Durham

Debra Durham, PhD

The 1985 amendment to the United States Animal Welfare Act (AWA) to promote psychological well being of primates in the laboratory represents an acknowledgment of an important welfare problem concerning nonhuman animals. How effective has this amendment been? Perhaps the best-known contributor to psychological distress in primates in the laboratory is nonsocial housing; yet, available analyses suggest that little progress has been made in avoiding single-caging of these animals. Another way to assess psychological well being is to examine rates of self-abusive behavior in laboratory primates. If the AWA has been effective, then post-AWA self-harm rates might be lower than …

‘Concentration Camps For Lost And Stolen Pets’: Stan Wayman’S Life Photo Essay And The Animal Welfare Act, Bernard Unti

Bernard Unti, PhD

In the 1960s, LIFE was America's single most important general weekly magazine, its photo-essay formula catering to a middle class constituency of millions. By the halfway point of that tumultuous decade, readers were accustomed to seeing searing and unpleasant images of a changing nation, one racked by civil unrest and entangled in a bloody war in Southeast Asia. But when LIFE's February 4, 1966 issue landed on newsstands and in mailboxes across the United States, with the cover's warning "YOUR DOG IS IN CRUEL DANGER," tens of millions of readers became acquainted for the first time with another kind of …

The Class B Dealer: Down And Out?, Bernard Unti

Bernard Unti, PhD

The supply of dogs and cats to laboratories by Class B animal dealers has been a contentious matter for decades. The subject engenders heated debate whenever it surfaces, most recently in September 2005 when Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) proposed an amendment to the FY 2006 agriculture funding bill to withhold federal monies to research institutions that purchase animals from Class B dealers.

Conservation Value Of Residential Open Space: Designation And Management Language Of Florida’S Land Development Regulations, Dara M. Wald

Dara Wald

Laboratory Animals: Unification Of Legislation In Europe, H. Rozemond

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

A committee of experts, Comite Ad Hoc pour Ia Protection des Animaux (CAHPA), has been convened by the Council of Europe to prepare a European convention on the protection of laboratory animals. The chief goal of the Council of Europe is to implement peaceful cooperation concerning cultural, economic, and social affairs in Europe. Matters of military concern are excluded. The countries represented on the Council include Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Denmark, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Greece, Great Britain, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Turkey, Sweden, and Switzerland. The Council holds conventions on various topics …

Reporting Requirements Under The Animal Welfare Act: Their Inadequacies And The Public's Right To Know, M. Solomon, P. C. Lovenheim

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

The Animal Welfare Act is the only federal statute designed to protect animals used in laboratory research. This law requires research facilities to register with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and meet minimum housing standards, care, and treatment standards for most warm-blooded animals. The Act is administered by the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), an agency of the USDA. Research institutions are required to file annual reports. However, the reports are frequently deficient. The authors argue that the USDA should issue clear definitions for what is meant by “pain” and “distress. ” They should also provide further …

Legislation And Regulation

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

The idea of new federal regulation on the care and use of animals in research is no longer novel; bills that would control and refocus the conduct of animal experimentation in the U.S. have been pending since the last session of Congress. Last autumn, however, a new phase in the process began. On 13-14 October 1981, the House Subcommittee on Science, Research, and Technology held information-gathering public hearings to evaluate existing bills and possibly formulate its own legislation.

Updating The British Cruelty To Animals Act Of 1876: Can The Center Hold?, Judith Hampson

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Long experience with unsuccessful attempts by British animal welfare groups to promote private members' bills for reform or replacement of the 1876 Cruelty to Animals Act has convinced reformists that achieving this kind of change by lobbying Parliament may be impossible. For this reason, a small reformist group- spearheaded by the ex-chairman of the Labour Party, Lord Houghton, and an eminent surgeon, the late Lord Platt- was formed and drafted reform proposals in a document widely known as the Houghton/Piatt Memorandum (paper submitted to the Home Secretary, 1976). This report called for a substantial tightening of controls established under the …