Animal Experimentation and Research Commons^™

Preference And Motivation Testing, David Fraser, Lindsay R. Matthews

Validation of Animal Experimentation Collection

Since the early 1970s, scientists have used preference tests (tests that require animals to choose between two or more different options or environments) as a means of answering questions about animal welfare. Preference tests have been used to establish animals' preferences for common housing options such as ambient temperature, illumination and preferred types of bedding and flooring; to improve the effectiveness of devices such as loading ramps and nest boxes; and to clarify how strongly animals avoid various aspects of confinement and methods of restraint.

To use preference research to answer questions about animal welfare, three issues need to be …

Harry F. Harlow And Animal Research: Reflection On The Ethical Paradox, John P. Gluck

Experimentation Collection

With respect to the ethical debate about the treatment of animals in biomedical and behavioral research, Harry F. Harlow represents a paradox. On the one hand, his work on monkey cognition and social development fostered a view of the animals as having rich subjective lives filled with intention and emotion. On the other, he has been criticized for the conduct of research that seemed to ignore the ethical implications of his own discoveries. The basis of this contradiction is discussed and propositions for current research practice are presented.

Institutional Animal Care And Use Committees: A Flawed Paradigm Or Work In Progress?, John P. Gluck, F. Barbara Orlans

Animal Welfare Collection

In his challenging article, Steneck (1997) criticized the creation of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) system established by the 1985 amendments to the Animal Welfare Act. He saw the IACUC review and approval of biomedical and behavioral research with animals as an unnecessary "reassignment" of duties from existing animal care programs to IACUC committees. He argued that the committees are unable to do the work expected of them for basically three reasons: (a) the membership lacks the expertise in matters relevant to animal research and care, (b) there exists an inherent and disabling conflict of interest, and …

Effect Of Room Arrangement And Blood Sample Collection Sequence On Serum Thyroid Hormone And Cortisol Concentrations In Cynomolgus Macaques (Macacafascicularis), Bryan L. Flow, John T. Jaques

Research Methodology and Laboratory Animals Collection

We evaluated the relationship, in cynomolgus macaques (Macacafascicularis), between rank for order of blood collection with serum concentrations of 3,5,3'-triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4), free thyroxine (FT4), and serum cortisol. These relationships were determined for males and females that were housed in two room arrangements. For both room arrangements, males and females were housed separately. For room arrangement 1, macaques were housed on both sides of the animal holding room. The sides of the animal holding room were designated as side A or side B. Blood was initially collected from animals on side A, then from animals on side B. Animals …

A Rodent For Your Thoughts: The Animal Model Strategy In Psychology, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Experimentation Collection

In this second of three essays, I describe how the early modern psychologists adopted the strategy of further transforming rats and other species into models of human thought, feeling, and behavior, and, particularly, of disorders of these - in effect taking "a rodent for your thoughts." In the third essay I will provide a critique and empirically-based evaluation of animal model research. Here I indicate what the model strategy in the biomedical sciences, properly understand, is intended to achieve and how, by contrast, particular models are presented to the public and funding agencies. Finally, I describe how they are utilized …

The Ingrown World Of Animal Model Research In Psychology, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Experimentation Collection

In the previous essay, I described the proper function of models in science as heuristic, as a way of generating hypotheses about the actual object of study. Turning to animal models in psychology, I offered a general characterization of that enterprise using sham feeding, an animal model of the eating disorder called bulimia, as an example. In this final of three essays, I offer an evaluation of this animal model strategy that largely employs the tools of social science. I close with a recommendation and a prediction.

Gender Differences In Attitudes Toward Animal Research, Jennifer J. Eldridge, John P. Gluck

Experimentation Collection

Although gender differences in attitudes toward animal research have been reported in the literature for some time, exploration into the nature of these differences has received less attention. This article examines gender differences in responses to a survey of attitudes toward the use of animals in research. The survey was completed by college students and consisted of items intended to tap different issues related to the animal research debate. Results indicated that women were more likely than men to support tenets of the animal protection movement. Likewise, women were more likely than men to favor increased restrictions on animal use …

Scientists And Animal Research: Dr. Jekyll Or Mr. Hyde?, Andrew N. Rowan

Experimentation Collection

Why is the public so sensitive about the use of a few tens of millions of animals in research when they do not object to killing hundreds of millions of pigs and cows and billions of chickens for our meat diet? Why is animal research considered so bad despite the public's high opinion of science (and scientists)? Perhaps it is the image of the scientist as an objective and cold individual who deliberately inflicts harm (pain, distress, or death) on his (the public image is usually male) innocent animal victims that arouses so much horror and concern. This paper does …

Chimpanzees In Laboratories: Distribution And Types Of Research, Martin L. Stephens

Laboratory Experiments Collection

This review presents the results of an informal 1993 survey of the distribution of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) in the world's laboratories, and the types of research conducted on them. Based on the available information, there are over 2200 chimpanzees in.laboratories, most of which are located in several US facilities. Europe apparently has less than 200 chimpanzees housed in two facilities. Worldwide, an estimated 80% of the chimpanzees in laboratories are used in studies on AIDS and hepatitis. It is concluded that, if Europe terminated its use of chimpanzees in research, for either financial, moral or political reasons, the impact on …

The Animal Research Controversy: Protest, Process & Public Policy, Andrew N. Rowan, Franklin M. Loew, Joan C. Weer

Experimentation Collection

The controversy today regarding the use of animals in research appears on the surface to be a strongly polarized struggle between the scientific community and the animal protection movement. However, there is a wide range of opinions and philosophies on both sides. Mistrust between the factions has blossomed while communication has withered. Through the 1960s, 1970s and early 1980s, the animal movement grew in numbers and financial resources, and developed much greater public recognition and political clout. The research community paid relatively little attention to the animal movement for much of this period but, alarmed by several public relations coups …

How The Rat Turned White, Kenneth J. Shapiro

Experimentation Collection

This is the first in a three-part series on the use of animals in psychological research. In it, I describe how animals got into laboratories in the first place, and their purpose and life there. In the second, I will describe animal model research, the strategy whereby psychologists' develop nonhuman animal models to study human psychopathology. In the concluding piece, I will present a critique of this enterprise, using original data I gathered. The three articles are based on a forthcoming book, Animal Models of Human Psychology: Science, Ethics, and Policy.

Animal Protection And Medical Science, David O. Wiebers, Jennifer Leaning, Roger D. White

Experimentation Collection

Over the past decade, the debate concerning animal use in biomedical research, education, and testing has contributed to an environment of public posturing on both sides. Many in the medical and animalprotection communities have come to view one another as adversaries with hopelessly different goals.

In the face of rapid and substantial increases in public concern over the wellbeing of animals, many in the medical community have sought to fend off what they see as an increasingly threatening social trend. Those who have spoken out on behalf of various medical organisations or institutions have generally been avid animal-research advocates. Those …

Public Attitudes Toward Animal Research: Some International Comparisons, Ralph Pifer, Kinya Shimizu, Linda Pifer

Attitudes Toward Animal Research Collection

A comparative analysis was made of the public's attitudes toward the use of animals in scientific research in 15 different nations. The intensity of opposition to animal research was found to vary from relatively low levels in Japan and the United States to much higher levels in France, Belgium, and Great Britain. More women than men were opposed to animal research in all 15 nations. Scientific knowledge, or the lack of knowledge, was not found to have a consistent relationship with attitudes toward animal research. Concern about the environment was found to be related to opposition to animal research in …

Concepts Of Animal Well-Being And Predicting The Impact Of Procedures On Experimental Animals, D. J. Mellor, C. S. W. Reid

Experimental Research and Animal Welfare Collection

1. We argue that:

• in their application to non-human animals, 'welfare' and 'well-being' are interchangeable words; and that

• good welfare/well-being is the state of being manifest in an animal when its nutritional, environmental, health, behavioural and mental needs are met.

2. These latter are essentially the 'five freedoms' formulated by the Farm Animal Welfare Council of the United Kingdom.

3. Using the five freedoms as a basis, we have developed a system for assessing the impact of a proposed animal experiment or usage. The freedoms are now transformed into 'domains of potential compromise' and are redefined better to …

The Value And Utility Of Animals In Research, Andrew N. Rowan, Joan C. Weer

Validation of Animal Experimentation Collection

The Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine, Center for Animals and Public Policy, sponsored an invitational seminar, The Value and Utility of Animals in Research, on October 14, 1993, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Baltimore, Maryland. This seminar was the second in a series of three organized by the Center for Animals and Public Policy and supported by The Pew Charitable Trusts to deal with issues relating to the use of animals in research. The first seminar, Biology Education and Animals: Opportunities and Issues, was held in the spring of 1993. The third meeting, at the National Press Club …

Refinements In Rabbit Husbandry, The Bvaawf/Frame/Rspca/Ufaw Joint Working Group On Refinement

Breeding of Laboratory Research Animals Collection

The aims of this report are to identify the needs of domesticated rabbits and to present information on ways in which the current systems of housing rabbits can be improved for the benefit of all concerned: the animal, the scientist, the animal technician and the breeder.

In recent years an increasing number of establishments have changed from standard caging to group housing systems, despite the traditionally-held view that mature rabbits cannot be housed together. In this report group housing in floor pens is discussed in detail (Section 2), with both the advantages and disadvantages of this system presented. It is …

The Ethical Judgment Of Animal Research, Shelley L. Galvin, Harold A. Herzog

Experimentation Collection

One hundred sixty subjects acted as members of a hypothetical Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee and evaluated five proposals in which animals were to be used for research or educational purposes. They were asked to approve or reject the proposals and to indicate what factors were important in reaching their ethical decisions. Gender and differences in personal moral philosophy were related to approval decisions. The reasons given for the decisions fell into three main categories: metacognitive statements, factors related to the animal, and factors related to the design of the experiment.

The Creation Of Transgenic Animal “Models” For Human Genetic Disease, Bernard Rollin

Biomedicine and Animal Models in Research Collection

Transgenic animals will be created to study human genetic disease as soon as the technological capability exists to do so. Extant laws permit such animals to be created. The mindset of the research community makes it inevitable. It is also clear that such diseases can cause enormous amounts of pain and suffering. Responsible researchers need to explore all possible avenues for controlling such pain and suffering. Thus far the research community has not engaged this issue vis a vis animals. The development of methodologies for controlling pain and suffering is likely to be exportable to numerous areas of animal research, …

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 …