Science / New regulations, which require researchers to report in detail the defects they cause to laboratory animals, arouse outrage in the scientific community in the USA
Photographs: New York Times
Laboratory mice in whose bodies various defects were caused. About 23 million mice and rats live in laboratories in the United States
A program by the US Department of Agriculture, which according to animal rights activists will ensure humane treatment of rats, mice and birds used as laboratory animals, could harm important research into human diseases - so claim senior researchers in the United States.
The Ministry of Agriculture agreed to add the rats, mice and birds to the list of biological species protected under the "Animal Welfare Law" in order to reach a compromise in a lawsuit filed by animal rights activists. Larger animals, such as cats, rabbits and primates, are already included in the law. Animal rights activists claim that about 95% of laboratory animals in the United States are rodents; According to estimates, about 23 million mice and rats currently live in laboratories throughout the country.
The agreement is a "complete capitulation" to the claims of the activists and could have "disastrous human, scientific and economic consequences", wrote Estelle Fishbein, attorney at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, about two weeks ago in the editorial of the journal of the American Medical Association. According to Fishbein, the small rodents are already treated humanely thanks to policies dictated by other government agencies, and subjecting their treatment to Department of Agriculture regulations would likely require "absurd paperwork" that would turn researchers into accountants. Fishbein called on her fellow researchers to establish a lobby to work against the new regulations.
The guidelines of the new policy have not yet been determined, but the Ministry of Agriculture will likely require the laboratories to report the number of animals they keep and to define the types of pain and distress animals are exposed to.
In an accompanying editorial in the journal of the American Medical Association, the former American Secretary of Agriculture, Dan Glickman, defended the decision to reach a settlement in the lawsuit filed by the organization "Development Foundation Alternatives Research and". According to Glickman, the Ministry of Agriculture reached a partial compromise out of concern that the court ruling would be worse.
The agreement "will not jeopardize the important research being conducted on several fronts," said Glickman. In the past, the USDA has said the rodents and other small lab animals are adequately protected under regulations from other government agencies.
The FY 2001 Agriculture Appropriations Orders signed by President Clinton delay the agreement from becoming law until the fall of 2001. Barbara Rich, vice president of the National Biomedical Research Association, which represents more than 350 universities and other related organizations for animal research, said it was unclear whether Congress and the Bush administration would uphold the agreement. Rich, whose company is fighting the deal, said it could end up costing more than $300 million.
John McArdle, director of Alternatives Research, said his organization's ultimate goal is to stop testing laboratory animals altogether, and use computer models instead. But Richard Triestem, a researcher at Johns Hopkins University who induces strokes in mice and cats to test possible treatments, said there are often no suitable alternatives. "Computer models are only as good as the information you put into them," he said. "Where will you get the information you want to put in? It must come from a real-life situation."
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{Appeared in Haaretz newspaper, 26/2/2001}
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