Artifact #8: THE ANIMAL WELFARE ACT

THE ANIMAL WELFARE ACT (AWA)
HSUS. http://www.hsus.org/animals_in_research/general_information_on_animal_research/laws_protecting_animals_in_research/the_animal_welfare_act.html

• Tells minimum standards of care and treatment required for animals in research
• Enacted in 1966, only to dealers. Amended in 1970 to research: birds, rats, and mice were not included (85% used in labs)
• "The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is the agency responsible for establishing these minimum standards of care and enforcing them through inspections."
• By 2004 the act was changed to all animals
• "The Animal Welfare Act also requires that any institution conducting research on USDA-regulated species have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), which oversees and provides final approval of experiments. This committee must ensure that any pain and distress caused by experiments be minimized, and that investigators consider any alternatives that are available to them (including non-animal alternatives). "
• 3 Parts: Facilities and Operating Standards, Animal Health and Husbandry Standards, and Transportation Standards

Artifact #7: HOW TO FIND PRODUCTS NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS

How to Find Products Not Tested on Animals
West, Larry. 2006. http://environment.about.com/od/greenlivingdesign/a/animal_testing.htm?terms=Animal+Testing

Testing is Mandated, Some Volunteer

• "Governments often mandate that certain products, such as drugs, automotive fluids, garden chemicals and food additives, be tested on animals."
• "... cosmetics, personal care and household cleaning products, companies voluntarily test on animals to better understand the pros and cons of using certain ingredients, to see what effects a given product or ingredient will have on living systems--and to demonstrate due diligence should their products harm someone and a lawsuit be filed."

Protests and Boycotts Have Stopped Some Animal Testing

• "...advocacy groups like HSUS and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) campaign vigorously to eliminate or reduce the use of animals in product testing, even recommending boycotts of companies that continue to voluntarily engage in what they argue is both cruel and unnecessary. "
• "...as more than 500 cosmetic, personal care and household cleaning product manufacturers have vowed to stop testing their products on animals."

Europe Passes Partial Ban on Animal Testing for Cosmetics

• "In 2003 the European Parliament approved a Europe-wide ban on the use of animals in cosmetics testing. Set to go into effect in 2009, the prohibition also mandates that no beauty or hygiene products tested on animals elsewhere be sold inside the European Union. Some exemptions do exist, however, such as products tested for toxicity or for their potential effects on human fertility. Some animal advocacy groups see these as unacceptable loopholes likely to undermine the ban or push back its implementation."

Questions

1. Why did Europe ban animal testing, and would the United States do the same?
2. Do the boycotts succeed, and to what extent will the groups go to get their point across?

Artifact # 6: HISTORY OF ANIMAL TESTING

History
http://www.answers.com/topic/animal-testing

• Earliest refrences of testing were from the Greeks in the 3rd and 4th centuries of BC
• "Animals have had a role in numerous well-known experiments. In the 1880s, Louis Pasteur convincingly demonstrated the germ theory of medicine by giving anthrax to sheep. In the 1890s, Ivan Pavlov famously used dogs to describe classical conditioning. Insulin was isolated first from dogs in 1922, and revolutionized the treatment of diabetes. On November 3, 1957 a Russian dog named Laika became the first of many animals to orbit the earth. In the 1970s, leprosy multi-drug antibiotic treatments were developed first in armadillos, then in humans. In 1996 Dolly the sheep was born, the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell."

Questions

1. Where would our technology be if we didn't use animals for some tests?

Artifact # 5: WHERE DO THE ANIMALS COME FROM AND WHERE DO THEY GO?

ANIMAL TESTING: Where Do the Animals Come From?
2005. ASPCA. http://www.animaland.org/asp/realissues/testing4.asp

• Most scientists buy the animals from animal dealers: Class A and Class B licensed dealers
• Class A Dealers: can only sell animals that they have bred
• Class B Dealers: can sell animals that they get from respectable places, some can pick up strays off of the street
• 31 states, Class B dealers can take animals from shelters and sell them to laboratories
• "In five states (Iowa, Minnesota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, and Utah) shelters are required to surrender animals to any class B dealers who ask for them."
• "14 states have passed laws making it illegal for animals in shelters to be sold for research. These states are Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, and West Virginia. It is illegal in all 50 states for stolen animals to be sold or used in research. "

ANIMAL TESTING: Where Do They Go After the Research Is Done? http://www.animaland.org/asp/realissues/testing5.asp

• Most animals are only used for one experiment, but could be used for more
• Most animals don't live their whole life in the lab
• Some are euthanized after being used
• Euthanize: To kill a human or other animal as painlessly as possible
• "Animals of all ages are used in research, so an animal may be euthanized soon after (or before) it is born, or it may live for its entire life and die of natural causes."

Questions

1. Instead of wasting drugs to kill the animals, why don't they find ways to put them up for adoption?
2. For dealers who get animals from shelters, do they have to wait a certain amount of days until they can get the animals or do they just take them that day?

Artifact #4: HOW ARE ANIMALS TREATED IN LABORATORIES?

ANIMAL TESTING: How Are Animals Treated in Laboratories?
2005. ASPCA. http://www.animaland.org/asp/realissues/testing2.asp

Small Animals: hamsters, gerbils, rats, mice, and guinea pigs

• Live in cages a little bigger than shoeboxes, wood chips cover the bottom and a wire netting covers the top
• More than one animal lives in a cage
• Food and water hang so the animals can reach them

Larger Animals: Cats, dogs, and primates

• Live in wire cages
• Monkeys might live with other primates, but most large animals live alone
• Primates may be moved to a bigger cage, so they can play. But other animals stay in their cage, unless they are used for experiments
• Laws insure that the cages are kept warm, clean, and big enough

"...1.4 million animals counted by the USDA that are used in research do not feel pain from the experiments.."

"...489,262 animals that were used in research last year (not including mice, rats, and birds--no one knows how many of these animals are used in research) were used in research that was either painful, distressful, or both."

"...103,764 of the animals made to feel pain were not given anything to reduce their pain and suffering. This means that more than 100,000 animals were made to feel pain and fear in 2002. Although some of this pain was slight--like getting an injection with a needle--some of it was extremely severe.. "

Questions

1. Do all of these facilities give the animals something to do while in cages, like the primates?
2. Are putting animals through pain deliberately, legal?

Artifact # 3: ANIMAL TESTING IS NECESSARY

Animal Testing is Necessary
Berlin, Ann. 1991. http://www.animalliberationfront.com/Philosophy/Animal%20Testing/Animal%20Testing.htm

This claim is refuted by the Research Defense Society:

• Many human diseases can be found in animals- heart disease, cancer, and asthma
• Some diseases are even caused by animals, so studying them would help find the cause or cure
• "The animals which are tested on are bred for the purpose and kept in good conditions. The regulations surrounding keeping animals for scientific tests in the UK are some of the most comprehensive in the world. These regulations are defined in the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 and include rules so places where animals are kept are inspected to ensure they are kept under certain conditions. "
• If a procedure deals with surgery it is given anesthetics, and painkillers for discomfort
• "Many of the alternatives suggested by animal rights activists such as tissue culture and computer modeling are already used along side animal testing. Before a potential drug is tested on animals it is put through a variety of in vitro tests to check things like toxicity and mutagenicity. If the drug doesn't perform well on these it won't go onto animal tests."
• The effects on some drugs can not be determined from tests with tissue and other models.
• "The interactions found in whole animals and between a mother and her embryo are so complex that to be-able to mimic them would require a lot more knowledge of what actually occurs and advances in technology which don't look set to occur for the foreseeable future. "

Questions

1.How many facilities have these conditions?

2. Not all facilities are these nice to animals, how do other businesses treat the animals?

Artifact # 2: ALL FOR ANIMALS

ANIMAL TESTING ALTERNATIVES

Stevens, Karen Lee. "Animal Testing Alternatives." 12 Dec 2006. http://www.allforanimals.com/alternatives1.htm

• There are NO laws that say companies have to test their products on animals before sending it to their customers
• The two main reasons for animal testing are: "the fear for human safety and the fear of product liability suits."
• "Revlon Cosmetics was one of the first large companies to fund research for alternatives with a $750,000 contribution to the Rockefeller University in 1979. Several organizations such as the John Hopkins Center for the Alternatives to Animal Testing (CAAT), the International Foundation for Ethical Research, the Cosmetic, Toiletry, and Fragrance Association, and the Soap and Detergent Association followed suit and started their own programs to validate alternatives. Keep in mind that, while companies search for alternatives, animal use actually INCREASES because the old test (using animals) must be done alongside the new test (without animals) to ensure consistent results."
• The Most Common Alternatives are:"in-vitro tests, computer software, databases of tests already done (to avoid duplication), and even human "clinical trial" tests. Use of animal cells, organs, or tissue cultures is also deemed an alternative although, obviously, animal lives are sacrificed for the use of their parts. "

Tests

• Eytex- test tube procedure, mimics the cornea of the human eye: used by Avon
• Skintex- uses pumpkin rind as skin
• EpiPack- cloned human tissue
• Neutral Red Bioassay- cultured human cells used to test dye on skin
• Testskin- human skin grown in a sterile bag: measured skin irritancy
• TOPKAT- computer software "that measures toxicity, mutagenicity, carcinogenicity, and teratonogenicity (this method is used by the U.S. Army, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Food and Drug Administration)."