Life Sciences Commons^™

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.

Letter To Editor: Producers Respond To Hsus Veal Campaign, Neal Black

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

An advertising campaign by The Humane Society of the United States against veal consumption is a slap in the face of the livestock industry, which has attempted to explore the concerns of animal welfarists about confinement production of livestock and respond to them.

Letter To Editor: Hsus Counters On Veal Study, John Hoyt

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Concerning the letter on the Livestock Conservation Institute's reaction to the HSUS veal campaign, I wish to clarify one point. The letter suggests that HSUS was unaware of Provimi, Inc.'s announced intention to undertake a study of the Quantock group-pen production system for milk-fed veal. This suggestion is not the case. We were informed of Provimi's important role in facilitating the evaluation of the group-pen system under U.S. conditions. That this company has begun such testing is a welcome sign and one we acknowledge in our campaign materials.

Is There Really A Market For Milk-Fed Veal?, Dana H. Murphy

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

In a two-part "Focus" article in this issue, we relate, first, the origins and subsequent growth of the milk-fed veal industry in Europe and in the U.S. and, second, some recent research findings on several current and potential production systems for raising veal, in light of both economic and humane considerations. At the moment, it seems as if the group-pen system, a far more humane method than the confinement crate, has won the day in the U.K. and may become a major production system in the U.S. But one critical question remains: How many people really want milk-fed veal?

How To Compose A Laboratory Animal Use Report For The Usda, J. M. Cass

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

All research facilities must submit an annual report on laboratory animal use to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal Care Staff as part of the legal requirements of the Federal Laboratory Animal Welfare Act (P.L. 89-544) and its subsequent amendments. This report (USDA: V.C. Form 18-23, Annual Report of Research Facility) must include an explanation of the scientific bases for conducting any research and tests that involve unalleviated distress (the "Pain-No Drugs" situation) in animal subjects. In some cases, only one of these reports is required.

Veal Re-Vealed: The Veal Industry, Peter C. Lovenheim

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Veal is meat that comes from the male offspring of dairy cows. These animals are not grown to maturity for beef because dairy breeds have been developed primarily for their milk-producing capability and not for the quality of their meat. Therefore, these animals are slaughtered as calves and marketed as "veal."

Veal-Revealed: The Controversy And New Developments, Dana Murphy

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Veal is meat that comes from the male offspring of dairy cows. These animals are not grown to maturity for beef because dairy breeds have been developed primarily for their milk-producing capability and not for the quality of their meat. Therefore, these animals are slaughtered as calves and marketed as "veal." In May 1981, the HSUS sent a letter to all veal industry companies raising concerns about current veal-rearing practices. Industry spokespersons defended the current system but have also been exploring changes in calf-rearing practices.

Striving For Common Ground: Humane And Scientific Considerations In Contemporary Wildlife Management, Stephen R. Kellert

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Although there is a diversity of opinion about how to view the relationship between humans and wildlife, recent political pressures from the current administration make it mandatory that these diverse groups coalesce to use their combined leverage to halt the planned incursions into the remaining habitats of wildlife. It is also essential to begin to see nature as a complex and interrelated whole and to respect the integrity of that whole rather than select individual species for affection and protection.

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 …

Letter To Editor: M.W. Fox Response To Allan's Letter To Editor, M. W. Fox

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

I have never condoned animal studies of learned helplessness that entail significant physical and psychological trauma - such as five milliamperes of inescapable electrical shock repeated at intervals for several days. I have also forcefully criticized psychologists (Fox, 1981, Psychopharmacol. Bull. 17:80-84) for poor experimental design and needless repetition.

Letter To Editor: Journal Editorial Vindicates Vivisectionists, Pat Allan

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

M.W. Fox's editorial, "The 'Show Dog' Syndrome" (IJSAP 3(1):3, 1982) cannot help but be extremely upsetting to any person who wants to see the particularly sadistic and useless experiments involving sentient beings recognized as such. I am referring to Fox's reference to Overmeier's "learned helplessness" experiments involving intense unavoidable electrical shock administered to dogs. Through reference to these kinds of experiments, Fox lends credibility to them; it would seem there is no other way to understand the "show dog" syndrome from a scientific perspective. Fox therefore

validates Overmeier's research and others who engage in similar research.

The Issue Of Science And The Issue Of Care, Andrew N. Rowan

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Dr. Edward Taub, Director of the Behavioral Biology Center of the Institute for Behavioral Research, was, on

November 23, 1981, found guilty of 6 counts of cruelty to animals. Dr. Taub has cried "victimization" and has attempted.

(with some success) to rally researchers to his defense. However, scientists should beware of taking up this case as a cause celebre. Taub was not being tried because his research was cruel (and hence unjustified); he was being tried because his laboratory was grossly unsanitary and did not provide adequate veterinary care. According to one respected laboratory animal veterinarian, the conditions were …

Bureaucracy And Wildlife: A Historical Overview, Edward E. Langenau

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

This paper provides a framework for understanding the Government's position on many wildlife topics, including humane ethics. The Government's historical role in wildlife conservation is traced to pertinent theories of bureaucracy. It is shown that Government involvement in wildlife conservation increased through successive stages of change because of interest group activity.

News And Analysis

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

The section includes reports on the use of pound animals for research; EEC standards for battery cages for laying hens; a declaration that fish are considered to be animals in Massachusetts, the rescue of dogs from research in Maryland; determining wildlife populations in Virginia; the tuna-dolphin controversy; the protection of laboratory animals; animal experimentation in the UK; the AVMA Animal Welfare Committee; broiler chicken welfare; ignorance regarding wildlife in the USA, the Ames Test as an alternative; the ban on sperm whale hunting; and an analysis of alternatives research supported by the NIH.

No Need To Be Boxed In: Group Pens And Grain For Veal Calves, Michael S. Mosner

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

The author’s family has been in the wholesale veal business for 30 years. The basis of this business has been various breeds of female beef calves that are slaughtered at less than 500 lb. These calves are allowed to suck from cows and graze until they are ready for market. However, beef calves tend to vary in quality and quantity depending on the time of the year they are purchased and raised. Generally, calves become scarce in the spring, when feeders are buying calves to put out on pasture. The author comments on the future of the veal industry.

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 …

The Silver Spring 17, Andrew N. Rowan

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

On November 23, 1981, in a Maryland District Court, Dr. Edward Taub was found guilty under a Maryland state anti-cruelty statute of not providing adequate veterinary care for 6 of the 17 monkeys confiscated from his laboratory two months earlier. The case has received extensive press coverage and caused widespread alarm in the scientific community. According to Science (274:121, 1981 ), "scientists throughout the country have been shocked by the Taub case, initially perceiving it as a bid by antivivisectionists to procure a court ruling against animal experimentation." Taub has fostered this impression and has drawn a false analogy between …

Ethical Issues And Future Directions In Wildlife Management, John W. Grandy

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Recent progress in the protection of wildlife and wildlife refuges is currently being undermined by the efforts of James Watt, U.S. Secretary of the Interior, who believes that commercial interests should take precedence over the preservation of pristine wilderness areas and wildlife sanctuaries. As populations approach extinction because of programs like decimation of habitats and predator control, the consequent loss is more than simply aesthetic: genetic material unique to each species will be lost forever. Particular issues of immediate concern are the fate of bobcats and whales, inhumane trapping, and the Endangered Species Act. As a longer-term concern, wildlife management's …

Some Thoughts On The Laboratory Cage Design Process, Margaret E. Wallace

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

A block to progress in the design of cages and other restricted environments for animals has been the notion that animal and human needs are necessarily in conflict. The design process should list the established and suspected animal needs separately from human needs- husbandry and experimental. Comparison of the two lists will often show more compatible needs than expected, and design features can be worked out to fulfill them. Adjustments may be made where needs are less compatible until "sufficient" compatibility is achieved. An innovative design for a mouse cage is described to show that this process can lead to …

Meetings And Announcements

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Report of the second European conference on farm animals in 1982 – “Between Production and Protection.” Comments on a workshop on the effectiveness of the German Animal Welfare Act of 1972 organized by the Academy for Continuing Veterinary Education and a report of the tenth vertebrate pest conference held in Monterey, California, in 1982.

The Economics Of Farm Animal Welfare, A. J. K. Webster

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

The number of ways one can be nice or nasty to animals is legion. This article will consider only one very specific aspect of farm animal welfare, namely, those systems of intensive animal production in which the system itself, irrespective of the quality of the stockmanship within the system appears to restrict the normal behavior of farm animals to an unacceptable degree. The systems that were considered by the House of Commons Select Committee on Agriculture (1981) include egg production from hens in battery cages, production of veal from calves deprived of solid food and isolated in wooden crates, and …

Deep Woodchip Litter: Hygiene, Feeding, And Behavioral Enhancement In Eight Primate Species, Arnold S. Chamove, James R. Anderson, Susan C. Morgan-Jones, Susan P. Jones

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Sixty-seven animals from eight primate species were used to assess improved husbandry techniques. The presence of woodchips as a direct-contact litter decreased inactivity and fighting and increased time spent on the ground. Placing food in the deep litter led to further behavioral improvement. Frozen foods improved distribution and reduced fighting in most situations, especially when buried in the litter. With time, the litter became increasingly inhibitory to bacteria. The results suggest that inexpensive ways of increasing environmental complexity are effective in improving housing for primates.

The Oxford Vegetarians - A Personal Account, Peter Singer

Human Health Collection

People coming together more or less by accident can have a catalytic effect on each other, so that each achieves more than he or she would have done alone. The Bloomsbury Group--G.E. Moore, Virginia and Leonard Woolf, E.M. Forster, J.M. Keynes, Vanessa and Clive Bell, Lytton Strachey and others--is a famous example. It would be immodest to suggest that the group of vegetarians who were together in Oxford from 1969 to about 1971 can compare with these illustrious figures; yet if the animal liberation movement ever succeeds in transforming our attitudes to other species, the Oxford Vegetarians may one day …

A Message From Pano, William G. Conway

Zoos and Aquariums Collection

The memo attached was found in an unstamped envelope with no return address on the grounds of the Bronx Zoo. It appears to have been written by a chimpanzee on assignment from a clandestine organization in Africa.

Experiences In The Protection Of The Large Predators In Finland, Erkki Pulliainen

Ecology Collection

During the nineteenth century, the large predators of Finland- wolf, bear, lynx, and wolverine- were exterminated in the southern and western regions of the country. There were almost no lynx by the late 1950s, but a protection order issued in 1968 has resulted in a steady increase in their number, to about 300 by 1980. There was a breeding population of wolverines until the late 1960s, but in the 1970s, most were killed by snowmobiles, and only 10-30 are now thought to inhabit the frontiers between Finland and the USSR, and Finland and Norway. Bears, in the 1970s, tended to …

Genetic Adaptation In Relation To Animal Welfare, R. G. Beilharz

Genetics Collection

In this essay I outline the processes of adaptation of animals and of animal populations and discuss their relevance to the problem of animal welfare. Because "animal welfare" has many different aspects including philosophical, ethical, and biological, it is important to examine some of the fundamental issues that underly the concept. Hence, in this essay, I comment on how people come to "know," how information accumulates, and how what we know influences our actions. I also discuss the biological information that is relevant to animal welfare. It is my hope that, when this topic has been placed within a broader …

Striving For Common Ground: Humane And Scientific Considerations In Contemporary Wildlife Management, Stephen R. Kellert

Nature Collection

Although there is a diversity of opinion about how to view the relationship between humans and wildlife, recent political pressures from the current administration make it mandatory that these diverse groups coalesce to use their combined leverage to halt the planned incursions into the remaining habitats of wildlife. It is also important to begin to see nature as a complex and interrelated whole, and to respect the integrity of that whole, rather than simply select individual species for affection and protection.

Bureaucracy And Wildlife: A Historical Overview, Edward E. Langenau

Laws and Legislation Collection

This paper provides a framework for understanding the Government's position on many wildlife topics, including humane ethics. The historical role of Government in wildlife conservation is traced in relation to pertinent theories of bureaucracy. It is shown that Government involvement in wildlife conservation increased through successive stages of change because of interest group activity.

These periods of increased Government involvement in wildlife matters are shown to have followed periods of resource exploitation. Recurrent cycles of exploitation, accompanied by economic prosperity, have then been followed by attitudes favorable to conservation and political activism. This, in turn, has produced periods of backlash …

Effects Of Psycho-Physiological Stress On Captive Dolphins, Nick Carter

Conservation Collection

Morgane (1978) has stated that:

Man sees all other creatures through the narrow focus of his own knowledge and sees the whole image in distortion. We patronize animals for their incompleteness and dependence and for their fate in having taken form so far below ourselves ... a great mistake, for animals should not and cannot, be measured by man. Many are gifted with many extensions of senses we have lost or never attained .... They live by voices we may never hear. Some may not be our accepted brethren, but also they are not our underlings.

If this "narrow focus …

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.