Animal Experimentation and Research Commons^™

A Longitudinal View Of Primate Life In Two American Laboratories, Jonathan Balcombe

Experimentation Collection

If representative of other facilities, our findings uncover serious welfare concerns for the wellbeing of primates kept in American research facilities. These animals face regular or chronic sources of pain and distress including noxious experimental and non‐experimental events and illness and injury; and severe and prolonged social disruptions. Pain relief is meager by comparison to that normally provided to humans, despite legislative requirements to minimize pain and distress and assume similarity to humans in terms of ability to experience pain and distress. Living environments are usually confinement indoors to a metal cage, often alone, and often with a minimum of …

Resolving Animal Distress And Pain: Principles And Examples Of Good Practice In Various Fields Of Research, Alicia Karas, Matthew C. Leach, Karl A. Andrutis, Kathleen Conlee, John P. Gluck, Andrew N. Rowan, Martin L. Stephens

Laboratory Experiments Collection

Pain and distress are central topics in legislation, regulations, and standards regarding the use of animals in research. However, in practice, pain has received greatly increased attention in recent years, while attention to distress has lagged far behind, especially for distress that is not induced by pain. A contributing factor is that there is less information readily available on distress, including practical information on its recognition, assessment and alleviation.

This chapter attempts to help fill that void by reversing the usual pattern and giving greater attention to distress than to pain. In addition, we also bypass the pain versus distress …

Report Of The Working Group On Animal Distress In The Laboratory, Marilyn Brown, Larry Carbone, Kathleen Conlee, Marian Dawkins, Ian J. Duncan, David Fraser, Gilly Griffin, Victoria A. Hampshire, Lesley A. Lambert, Joy A. Mench, David Morton, Jon Richmond, Bernard E. Rollin, Andrew N. Rowan, Martin L. Stephens, Hanno Würbel

Laboratory Experiments Collection

Finding ways to minimize pain and distress in research animals is a continuing goal in the laboratory animal research field. Pain and distress, however, are not synonymous, and often measures that alleviate one do not affect the other. Here, the authors provide a summary of a meeting held in February 2004 that focused on distress in laboratory animals. They discuss the difficulties associated with defining ‘distress,’ propose methods to aid in recognizing and alleviating distressful conditions, and provide recommendations for animal research conduct and oversight that would minimize distress experienced by laboratory animals.

Chimpanzees In Research: Past, Present, And Future, Kathleen Conlee, Sarah T. Boysen

State of the Animals 2005

Although the welfare of chimpanzees encompasses many issues, this chapter addresses their use in research, including their historical and current use in the United States, ethical and scientific concerns, public opinion, international legislation, and future directions.

Socialized Vs. Unsocialized Wolves (Canis Lupus) In Experimental Research, Harry Frank, Linda M. Hasselbach, Dawn M. Littleton

Experimentation Collection

In the experimental setting human contact is both more frequent and more intimate than in observational research, and the issue therefore assumes even greater importance. The present paper discusses two experimental studies of wolf information processing, one of which was conducted with unsocialized animals and one of which was conducted with socialized animals, and examines the both the management and methodological consequences of these approaches.

Ethics, Welfare, And Laboratory Animal Management, David J. Allan, Judith K. Blackshaw

Experimentation Collection

Animals have been used in medical research from as far back as 129-199 A.D. when Galen, a Greek medical scientist, used a pig for his experiments. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, anatomical dissections were carried out on animals; Galvani used frogs in 1791 for his experiments and the Russian physiologist, Pavlov, carried out his famous dog experiments in the early 1900s. Since this time, large numbers of animals have been used in biomedical and other research. In 1963 the first edition of "The Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals" was published, and the United States Public …

The Potential Role Of Local Ethical Committees In The Moderation Of Experiments On Animals In Britain, D. P. Britt

Experimentation Collection

Scientists working with laboratory animals in Britain are made aware forcibly that a serious ethical dilemma surrounds the use of animals in experiments. Certain vociferous sections of the community press the issue on the attention of the general public and media sources tend to propagate views expressed by the most extreme parties, while neglecting coverage of mature, rational opinion. It is, perhaps no bad thing for the scientific community to be frequently reminded to take a responsible attitude to the use of animals but recent overt, even illegal, activity on the part of extremist animal protectionist groups has encouraged a …

Is Your Pet Safe From Laboratory Experimentation?

Close Up Reports

In the U.S., the path from public or private shelters to laboratories is treat too often by dogs and cats. In a few states, so-called "pound seizure" laws require shelters to turn over unclaimed or unwanted dogs and cats to researchers. In other states, shelters may voluntarily sell dogs and cats to "bunchers" who travel around a state or states, bunching animals together to resell to research facilities. Even in the handful of states that prohibit release of animals for research purposes, unscrupulous profit seekers can find animals and sell them for research across state lines.

Many scientists claim these …

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

Laws and Legislation Collection

We conclude from the analysis that the Reporting System, as presently administered, fails to achieve its primary statutory objective: it does not provide APHIS with information sufficient to demonstrate that researchers have used pain-relieving drugs "appropriately" and in accordance with "professionally acceptable standards." The chief reasons for this failing are (1) regulations and guidelines do not define "pain" or "distress," (2) regulations and guidelines do not adequately define "routine procedures," and (3) regulations and guidelines do not require meaningful explanations for the withholding of pain-relieving drugs in procedures acknowledged to cause pain.

Regulation Of Biomedical Research, Andrew N. Rowan

Experimentation Collection

The idea of abolishing or simplifying government regulations has a large following in Washington at the moment. As Reagan and his minions start to prune the growth of the past twenty years, we must hope that they are able to distinguish between the healthy growth which provides needed support and the unnecessary growth which strangles necessary initiatives. However, there is one area where we need more regulation rather than less, namely, biomedical research. In calling for more regulation in biomedical research, I do not mean the imposition of outside controls by allegedly ignorant and insensitive bureaucrats (although I think some …

Live Animals In Car Crash Studies, Nancy Heneson

Experimentation Collection

The scientific rationale for using live animals in car crash studies proceeds from the argument that comparative biomedical and biomechanical data are needed to develop an instrumented dummy, or anthropomorphic test device, which will provide reliable, reproducible information for designing safe cars. The animal studies are thus not really ends in themselves, i.e., they do not supply data which can be readily applied to real situations. Instead, they contribute to a pool of information which is supposed to lead to the perfecting of an experimental subject (the instrumented dummy) which will eventually render the further use of Iive animals unnecessary.