Laboratory animal welfare (original) (raw)
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Toxicology and New Social Ethics for Animals
Toxicologic Pathology, 2003
The issue of animal treatment has emerged as a major social concern over the past three decades. This ramified in a new ethic for animal treatment that goes beyond concern about cruelty and attempts to eliminate animal pain and suffering, whatever its source. This is evidenced by laws governing animal research in many countries. Insofar as toxicology can entail significant and prolonged animal suffering, it is at loggerheads with this new ethic. Ways are suggested for the toxicological community to put itself in harmony with the ethic and thereby preserve its autonomy.
Environmental Enrichment of Nonhuman Primates, Dogs and Rabbits Used in Toxicology Studies
Toxicologic Pathology, 2003
The increasing emphasis on the provision of environmental enrichment to laboratory animals, vis-à-vis the USDA Animal Welfare Regulations, the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (NRC 1996), and a potential forthcoming policy from the USDA on the subject, can be difficult to accommodate in a toxicology research environment. A summary will be provided of current requirements and recommendations. Then, strategies for meeting regulatory requirements will be described for non-rodent animals used in toxicology research. These strategies will address methods of both social enrichment, such as pair or group housing, as well as non-social enrichment, such as cage furniture, food enrichments, and toys. In addition, the value of positive interactions with staff (e.g., through training paradigms or socialization programs) will also be discussed. Apparent in the discussion of these strategies will be an overarching recognition of the necessity to avoid introducing confounding variables into the research project and to avoid compromising animal health. The roles of the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) and the attending veterinarian in helping scientists balance animal well-being, the scientific enterprise and the regulatory environment will be described.
ILAR Journal, 2005
Many aspects of the research animal's housing environment are controlled for quality and/or standardization. Of recent interest is the potential for environmental enrichment to have unexpected consequences such as unintended harm to the animal, or the introduction of variability into a study that may confound the experimental data. The effects of enrichment provided to nonhuman primates, rodents, and rabbits are described to illustrate that the effects can be numerous and may vary by strain and/or species. Examples of parameters measured where no change is detected are also included because this information provides an important counterpoint to studies that demonstrate an effect. In addition, this review of effects and noneffects serves as a reminder that the provision of enrichment should be evaluated in the context of the health of the animal and research goals on a case-by-case basis. It should also be kept in mind that the effects produced by enrichment are similar to those of other components of the animal's environment. Although it is unlikely that every possible environmental variable can be controlled both within and among research institutions, more detailed disclosure of the living environment of the subject animals in publications will allow for a better comparison of the findings and contribute to the broader knowledge base of the effects of enrichment.
A good life? A good death? Reconciling care and harm in animal research
Social & Cultural Geography, 2021
Laboratory animal science represents a challenging and controversial form of human-animal relations because its practice involves the deliberate and inadvertent harming and killing of animals. Consequently, animal research has formed the focus of intense
ARBS Annual Review of Biomedical Sciences Theme Topic on “ Unraveling Animal Welfare ”
2008
Veissier I, Forkman B. The Nature of Animal Welfare Science. ARBS Annu Rev Biomed Sci 2008;10:T15T26. The societal concern for animal welfare stems from the acknowledgement that they are sentient beings, whether their sentience makes morally unacceptable any act that would increase their suffering (utilitarian point of view) or animals deserve rights because of their sentience (animal rights point of view). Several definitions of animal welfare have been proposed, based on common sense, mechanisms, or operational indicators. These definitions should not be interpreted as uncertainties about the existence of the concept but rather as different aspects of the same concept. Whatever the definition used, research on animal welfare attempts to answer the following questions: To what extent are the animals used by humans capable of emotions? How does an animal perceive its environment? How can we assess the level of animal welfare in a given situation? What are the impacts of the ways we ...
International journal for the study of animal problems
Part of the Animal Studies Commons, Civic and Community Engagement Commons, and the Politics and Social Change Commons Recommended Citation Recommended Citation Rowan, A.N. (1981). A chronology of significant events, meetings, and publications concerning the welfare of laboratory and farm animals. International Journal for the Study of Animal Problems, 2(2), 60-67. This material is brought to you for free and open access by WellBeing International. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of the WBI Studies Repository. For more information, please contact
Mandatory "Enriched" Housing of Laboratory Animals: The Need for Evidence-based Evaluation
ILAR Journal, 2005
Environmental enrichment for laboratory animals has come to be viewed as a potential method for improving animal well-being in addition to its original sense as a paradigm for learning how experience molds the brain. It is suggested that the term housing supplementation better describes the wide range of alterations to laboratory animal housing that has been proposed or investigated. Changes in the environments of animals have important effects on brain structure, physiology, and behavior-including recovery from illness and injury-and on which genes are expressed in various organs. Studies are reviewed that show how the brain and other organs respond to environmental change. These data warrant caution that minor cage supplementation intended for improvement of animal well-being may alter important aspects of an animal's physiology and development in a manner not easily predicted from available research. Thus, various forms of housing supplementation, although utilized or even preferred by the animals, may not enhance laboratory animal well-being and may be detrimental to the research for which the laboratory animals are used.
Humane endpoints for laboratory animals used in regulatory testing
ILAR journal / National Research Council, Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, 2002
Laboratory animals are used for regulatory testing to assess the safety, efficacy, and/or potential adverse health effects of new chemicals and products such as vaccines, medicines, food additives, pesticides, and industrial chemicals. Testing results are used for risk assessment decisions intended to safeguard human and animal health. However, chemical toxicity and vaccine testing can cause injury, disease, and mortality involving significant pain and distress. Alleviation of pain and distress in animals during testing is problematic because regulations allow treatment only if the treatment does not interfere with the study. One approach to this problem has been to identify criteria that can serve as the basis for ending a test procedure sooner in an effort to terminate or avoid pain and distress while still allowing attainment of study objectives. These criteria are referred to as humane endpoints because they reduce the severity and/or duration of pain and distress experienced by...