Research Methods in Life Sciences Commons^™

Arkansas Cooperative Beef Bull Performance Test 1991, M. W. Eaton, A. E. Brown Jr., J. A. Hornsby, R. W. Parham, J. D. Shockey, W. C. Loe

Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station Research Series

Performance testing of beef bulls was initiated to improve productivity of Arkansas beef cattle through breeding. This cooperative testing program provides cattlemen with reliable information for identifying animals with superior breeding value for the traits of production measured in the test. By using the information as a basis for herd sire selection, a breeder can greatly increase the chances of obtaining a bull that will sire rapid-gaining, more efficient, highquality calves. Such calves can increase profits for both the breeder and the feeder. This testing program provides information that is useful to financial institutes in arranging their lending programs and …

Use Morality As Basis For Animal Treatment, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Experimentation Collection

No abstract provided.

Animals In Biomedical Research: The Undermining Effect Of The Rhetoric Of The Besieged, John P. Gluck, Steven R. Kubacki

Experimentation Collection

It is correctly asserted that the intensity of the current debate over the use of animals in biomedical research is unprecedented. The extent of expressed animosity and distrust has stunned many researchers. In response, researchers have tended to take a strategic defensive posture, which involves the assertation of several abstract positions that serve to obstruct resolution of the debate. Those abstractions include the notions that the animal protection movement is trivial and purely anti-intellectual in scope, that all science is good (and some especially so), and the belief that an ethical consensus can never really be reached between the parties.

Reflective Ethology, Applied Philosophy, And The Moral Status Of Animals, Marc Bekoff, Dale Jamieson

Experimental Research and Animal Welfare Collection

Currently there is an unprecedented interest in ethological studies of nonhuman animals. Much of this interest is motivated by a desire to learn more about animals themselves. For scientists assuming this stance, a secondary goal is to use this knowledge to assess the place of humans in the natural order of things, stressing continuity or discontinuity depending on one's views. Others, however, study animals primarily to apply this knowledge to human behavior. We argue that behavioral research demands the rigorous application of methods that are minimally harmful to the animals being studied. We argue for a moderate, but rigorous and …

Understanding Dogs Through Kinesthetic Empathy, Social Construction, And History, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Sentience Collection

The term, "come into animal presence," she takes from the title of a Denise Levertov poem. The poem, which reads, in part, "What joy when the insouciant armadillo glances at us and doesn't quicken his trotting across the track into the palm bush. What is this joy?" This joy is the possibility of our being in the presence of animals for "(t)he armadillo has some intention to pursue in the palm forest." This joy, to which I invite you here, consists in dwelling in that presence, in inhabiting that intention, that armored but guileless world of the armadillo. I will …

A New Invasiveness Scale: Its Role In Reducing Animal Distress, Kenneth J. Shapiro, Peter B. Field

Experimentation Collection

No abstract provided.

Meeting Offers Hope For Fewer Animal Tests, Iver Peterson

News Reports

No abstract provided.

The Case For The Use Of Animals In Biomedical Research, Carl Cohen

Morality and Ethics of Animal Experimentation Collection

No abstract provided.

The Case Against The Use Of Animals In Science, Donald J. Barnes

Experimentation Collection

As a scientist long committed to the understanding, prediction, and control of biological, physiological, and behavioral events, I have no objection to the animal as a legitimate focus of science. As a parent, a son, a sibling, and the proud recipient of unconditional positive regard from a few special people, I am vitally interested in matters of health and in the most ethically efficient use of available resources. As a member of a species which has evolved sufficiently to allow the relatively broad perspective of a "web of life" and at least a rudimentary concept of altruism, I have laboriously …

The Case For The Use Of Animals In Science, James A. Will

Experimentation Collection

Animals are now used extensively in research and teaching, and the appropriateness of their use appears to be questioned. Some people believe that we are in a new era where the animal activists have become much more influential, and that the antagonism between the scientists and these groups is worse than it ever has been. This does not appear to be the case. The preeminence of various influences seems rather cyclic, even perhaps influenced by such things as economic conditions or wars. At present, the question is often asked, "Should we continue to use animals in science?" The real question …

The Case For The Use Of Animals In Medicine, Gary F. Merrill

Experimentation Collection

The use of animals in medical research and teaching, and the public concern this has generated is not a new issue (Visscher 1969). Ever since scientists began using animals to investigate the function of the body in health and disease, there have been those who opposed their work (Fishman and Richards 1982). Whether this controversy is cyclic is not known, but most concerned biomedical investigators agree that the opposition is here to stay. The author shares this opinion, and thus maintains that it is in the best interest of all parties to be properly educated on the issues. Only through …

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 …

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.

The Cruel Deception, Robert Sharpe

Experimentation Collection

With new legislation to replace the Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 near at hand, the powerful vested interest groups whose profits and livelihood depend on laboratory animals are stepping up their campaigns to ensure the survival of vivisection. Have the benefits really been so great, and can vivisection achieve major advances in our present state of health?

History shows (McKeown 1979) that the real reasons for the dramatic increase in life expectancy since the middle of the last century are improvements in nutrition, living and working conditions, hygiene and sanitation, with medical measures only having a relatively marginal effect. The …

A Pivotal Year For Lab Animal Welfare, Constance Holden

Popular Press Items

Tighter regulations, higher costs, and refined methodologies likely to lead to decreased animal use

Alternative To Current Uses Of Animals In Research, Safety Testing, And Education: A Layman's Guide, Martin L. Stephens

eBooks

No abstract provided.

The Animal Slave Trade: Brutality On The Road To Research

Close Up Reports

The HSUS is working on several fronts to stop the exploitation of our nation's pets. In January, we were instrumental in establishing a coalition to abolish pound seizure-the practice of relinquishing pound and shelter animals for research purposes. Consisting of 11 of the country's leading animal welfare organizations, The National Coalition to Protect Our Pets will be working with local groups to outlaw pound seizure on a state-by-state basis. HSUS investigators will continue to trace the road to research, and we'll be taking legal action against both dealers and research centers whenever necessary. In our effort tore- r duce the …

Cruel Cosmetic Testing Could Be Stopped Today If Consumers Demanded It!

Close Up Reports

The HSUS is launching an all-out offensive to bring an end to the terror and torture endured by millions of animals used in product-safety tests for cosmetics. In recent years, pressure from the animal-welfare community has prompted cosmetic companies to begin developing more humane methods of testing their products. Despite what appears to be progress, findings of a new HSUS study indicate that non-animal alternatives for testing cosmetics may never be implemented on an industry-wide basis unless consumers take action now.

Ethical Aspects Of Animal Experimentation, Wolfgang Scharmann

Experimentation Collection

If inquiries are made of people regarding their attitudes towards animal experimentation, there will no doubt be various answers corresponding to the different ethical attitudes today. Three principle points of view are imaginable. The two extremes are: an unrestricted support of all animal experiments; and a radical rejection of any such experiment. These two positions, in all likelihood, are taken by only a minority of the population. The majority will approve of animal experimentation in principle, however, only insofar as it is really necessary to preserve human life. So, the point of controversy arises from the question: When is an …

Anthropomorphism Is Not A Four-Letter Word, Randall Lockwood

Experimentation Collection

Most animal scientists are directly or indirectly instructed to avoid any hint of anthropomorphism, yet it is an approach that is invariably applied by scientists and lay people alike. Science may have gained some objectivity in discarding this common view of animals, but it has gone overboard in its rejection of the concept of the continuity of human and animal experiences. I hope to outline how an anthropomorphic perspective can be applied in ways that are a service to science and the animals themselves.

Advances In Animal Welfare Science 1985/86, M. W. Fox (Ed.), A. N. Rowan (Ed.)

eBooks

This second volume of papers dealing with scientific and ethical aspects of animal welfare covers a variety of topics and areas of investigation. It will be of particular interest to those readers seeking more insight into such subjects as farm animal welfare and humane husbandry systems; animal experimentation, especially in the field of psychology; and pain in animals, notably its recognition and alleviation.

The Hsus Condemns Psychological Experimentation On Animals

Close Up Reports

For almost a century, millions of cats, dogs, monkeys, and other laboratory animals have fallen victim to the misguided notion that by torturing animals we may someday find the golden key that unlocks the dark corners and passageways of human psychology. Heedless of any relevance the experiments may have to the human condition or of the differences between humans and other animals, experimental psychologists are exercising unbridled on animals the whole range of suffering, from emotional trauma, like that experienced by the doomed infant monkey, to outright physical torture. Animals have been blinded and returned to the wild to test …

Ld50: A Cruel Waste Of Animals

Close Up Reports

Imagine a test in which up to 100 animals are forced to consume a toxic substance in an amount high enough to kill half of them. Then imagine that the explicit purpose of the test is to kill those animals. Incredibly, such a test not only exists but each year also claims the lives of from two to four million animals.

The test is the lethal dose 50, or LD50 as it's commonly called. Its purpose is to measure the toxicity of a substance by determining how much of that substance will kill half of a group of some 60-100 …

Book Reviews

International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems

Fox reviews two books. The first is a collection of papers from the First Conference on Scientific Perspectives in Animal Welfare organized by the Scientists Center for Animal Welfare. The second book is All that Dwell Therein. Animal Rights and Environmental Ethics by Tom Regan.

The Ld50--The Beginning Of The End, Andrew N. Rowan

Experimentation Collection

Measurement is very important in science. Early lessons in the science classroom involve teaching students to measure lengths, volumes, weights, specific gravities and anything else within the mental and economic compass of the teacher. At the same time, the question of significance is drummed into the students' heads. Thus, if one has a meter-rule which is subdivided into centimeters (but not millimeters), one is taught that the measurement of its length to one decimal point (for example, 10.3 em) is acceptable, but that the addition of any more figures (for example, 10.325 em) is mere braggadocio. The eye can only …

Vivisection And Misanthropy, George P. Cave

Experimentation Collection

Goodman recognizes that it is reasonable to question whether all experiments performed on animals really contribute to human welfare, and he even concedes that the use of animals in laboratories "could no doubt be reduced further without harm to humankind." On the other hand, it is quite clear that he is completely unaware of the sheer quantity of absolutely worthless experiments currently being conducted, ,and that he subscribes to the popular misconception, deliberately perpetrated by the research establishment, that animal experimentation is coextensive with biomedical research, thereby contributing directly to human welfare through the conquering of disease. Furthermore, Goodman seems …

Thoughtful Use Of Animals, Hyram Kitchen

Experimentation Collection

As part of a symposium held in Cincinnati entitled, "Ethical Issues Related to the Use of Research Animals," I was asked by the program director to consider whether further legislation regarding the use of animals might be necessary to ensure more thoughtful use of animals at universities. The following is my response.

A Survey Of Animal Behavior-Related Research And Teaching Activities In North American Agricultural And Veterinary Medical Colleges, W. R. Stricklin

Ethology Collection

A letter questionnaire was used to survey animal behavior-related research and teaching efforts in U.S.A. and Canadian university animal sciences departments (agriculture) and veterinary medical colleges. The objectives of the eleven questions of the survey were to identify behavior workers and to determine the current and planned levels of emphasis on research and teaching activities in domestic animal behavior. During 1981, questionnaires were mailed to 162 deans and chairmen, and 102 were answered and returned. Twenty-three persons were identified as having appointments specifically or primarily in animal behavior, and 99 persons were identified as having appointments that had some responsibilities …

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 …

Psychology And Its Animal Subjects, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Experimentation Collection

By way of introducing Psychologists for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PsyETA) to readers of the journal, I have been asked to make some comments about the organization and, from a personal point of view, to suggest some of my own positions and views.