Vivisection

V

Animal Housing and Husbandry

Animal housing and animal husbandry are important concerns in terms of animal welfare and these are recognized under worldwide animal law. In the United Kingdom, the Home Office-issued Code of Practice has made recommendations on: the design of animal facilities, maintenance of environmental conditions, transport of animals, animal accommodation, maintenance of animal health, and humane killing of animals. Research is carried out to improve the welfare of laboratory animals.

VI

Alternatives

The aims of groups promoting replacement alternatives to animal studies are to develop procedures that do not use animals; reduce the numbers of animals required; or diminish the amount suffered by animals to meet the essential needs of humans and other animals. Possible ways to achieve these aims include: improved storage, exchange, and use of information about previous animal experiments, to avoid unnecessary repetition; use of physical and chemical techniques; use of mathematical and computer models; use of “lower” organisms, including invertebrates, plants, and micro-organisms; use of in vitro methods; human studies; and use of early developmental stages.

Under European, Canadian, and United States law, these replacement alternatives have to be considered before animal experiments are proposed; procedures used should cause the least suffering or lasting harm to an animal, while providing satisfactory results. Replacement alternatives still require validation and evaluation before being accepted as a legal alternative to using animals.

VII

Toxicity Testing

Toxicity testing involves the legal use of animal experimentation to identify the potential adverse effects caused by chemicals. It is used widely by the manufacturers of products, such as household and industrial products, pesticides, foods, and cosmetics, to assess the effects of chemicals on the biological system. The risk potential of the chemicals depends on the chemical toxicity and the quantity of the chemical present. Stringent legal requirements for safety have led manufacturers to obligatorily test new chemicals and check the safety of established products on the market.

The type of toxicity test used is dependent on the circumstances. Various in vivo methods to identify toxic effects exist. These include acute systemic tests, eye and skin irritancy tests, subacute and chronic tests, carcinogenicity and mutagenicity tests, reproductive toxicity tests, and sensitization tests. The adverse effects of chemicals used on animals in toxicity testing range from loss of weight to loss of major organ function and death; but the extent of the effects depends on the purpose of the study, the chemical or formulation being tested, and the number of animals used.

Vaccine potency testing, detecting disease in animals held in quarantine, and efficacy testing of new pharmaceuticals are other procedures that necessitate, by law, the use of animals.

VIII

Training and Education

Animal handling at school level is believed to help children understand animal physiology and behaviour, and to influence children's treatment and attitudes towards living organisms. In Britain, living vertebrates can only be used in schools for observational, behavioural, or breeding experiments that do not cause harm to the animal; the dissection of dead animals is optional.

In tertiary education, licences may be obtained to use animals to demonstrate known facts but not for undergraduates to acquire any form of manual skill. Video material and computer simulation alternatives must be considered before a licence is granted. Postgraduate research is bound by the same licensing guidelines; in addition, students must be supervised when learning experimental techniques. New licensees must receive training in their proposed technique and also general training concerning the use of animals in research.

Supporters of vivisection maintain that most significant advances in human health have involved the use of animals, that the human right to health ultimately takes priority over animal welfare, and that all responsible medical research involves the use of animals at some stage. The use of animals in research is carefully controlled by law and abuses are rare. Public demands for increasingly high safety standards for chemicals used in products have to be satisfied, and reliable information is only available from animal tests.

Those opposing vivisection claim that animals have the same rights as humans; that advances in human health owe more to better standards of nutrition and hygiene than to experimental science based on the use of animals; and that there are valid and cheaper alternatives to animals which could be used in medical research. They maintain that many of the chemicals used in products are unnecessary and so tests on them cannot be justified, and that performing animal experiments degrades those who carry them out and should not be permitted.