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This article describes the standards devised by the British Psychological Society for the treatment of living laboratory animals. Any scientific procedure that could cause pain, stress, or lasting harm to animals is governed by this legislation as well as all other relevant laws.

Ethical guidelines for the treatment of animals in behavioural research and teaching can be used to ensure animal welfare and avoidance of adverse consequences for the animals under study. The guidelines include compliance with legislative rules and laws, usage of minimum possible animals, careful selection of animals, consideration of non-animal alternatives and usage of reputable suppliers for animal procurement. Several procedural guidelines include minimization of detrimental conditions, such as social deprivation, predation, aversive stimulation and intraspecific killing.

We describe the Sherbrooke positron emission tomograph, a very high resolution device dedicated to dynamic imaging of small laboratory animals. Its distinctive features are: small discrete scintillation detectors based on avalanche photodiodes (APD) to achieve uniform, isotropic, very high spatial resolution; parallel processing for low deadtime and high count rate capability; multispectral data acquisition hardware to improve sensitivity and scatter correction; modularity to allow design flexibility and upgradability. The system implements the 'clam-shell' sampling scheme and a rotating rod transmission source. All acquisition parameters can be adjusted under computer control. Temperature stability at the detector site is ensured by the use of thermoelectric modules. The initial system consists of one layer of 256 modules (two rings of detectors) defining 3 image slices in a 118 mm diameter by 10.5 mm thick field. The axial field can be extended to 50 mm using 4 layers of modules (8 rings of detectors). The design constraints and engineering aspects of an APD-based PET scanner are reviewed and preliminary results are reported.

Animal welfare considerations and regulations serve to ensure that experimental animals are used wisely while minimizing stress. Substantial impacts on the use of animals in experiments have resulted, thereby increasing the challenges for designing studies and analyzing data to provide valid inferences. Statisticians should become more indispensable for involvement in study design (including Animal Care and Use Committees), application of appropriate analyses, prudent interpretation of results, and the development of new statistical techniques to meet these needs. KEY WORDS: Animal care committees; Animal welfare regulations; Experimental design; Small sample size., There has been an increasing focus worldwide on how animals are used in research experiments. The public and the scientific community generally concur that animals should be used efficiently and [...]

This paper is a critique of NIH guidelines for the care and protection of laboratory animals. It exposes four serious deficiencies in these guidelines: (1) failure to make it dear that the mere pursuit of knowledge does not justify using animals; (2) failure to give any guidance concerning what constitutes human benefit or well-being; (3) failure to countenance trade-offs between human benefit or well-being and animal well-being, (4) failure to clearly specify what constitutes keeping animals in an |environment appropriate to the species and. its life history.' It concludes with the suggestion that the construction and revision of these guidelines is too important to be left to the professionals.

Even lab rats have their lobbyists. But those lobbyists are having trouble getting through Washington's regulatory maze. Roughly 23 million rats, mice, and birds are consumed every year in research. […]

The American Medical Association (AMA) has prepared a report concerning animal research; it addresses the question of whether it is more ethical to ban all medical research on animals or to use a limited number of animals under humane conditions when no alternatives exist for advancing medical science. The paper stresses that during the 20th century, animal research has produced significant advances in controlling disease and developing surgical techniques for humans, as well as for animals. The ethics of using animals for research purposes has been the subject of philosophical debate for many centuries. Some elements of the animal rights movement have grown so militant that their more extreme actions are considered terrorist activities by the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and other law enforcement groups. In many cases, this militant element has gained control over more moderate animal rights activists whose objective is to provide homes and shelter for stray animals. Animal rights groups argue that basic biomedical research has no clinical value, and in some cases is duplicated needlessly. The AMA report argues that many significant clinical developments have been achieved from this basic research, and that duplication is essential to confirm research results. The paper takes issue with the position of animal rights activists that too many animals are being used and that the animals suffer pain and abuse in the course of research. The AMA's report opposes new legislation that would ban animal research or impose restrictions on how research animals are housed and cared for. The first proposal would effectively end most basic biomedical research, and the second would add significantly to its cost., ABSTRACT: For centuries, opposition has been directed against the use of animals for the benefit of humans. For more than four centuries in Europe, and for more than a century in the United States, this opposition has targeted scientific research that involves animals. More recent movements in support of animal rights have arisen in an attempt to impede, if not prohibit, the use of animals in scientific experimentation. These movements employ various means that range from information and media campaigns to destruction of property and threats against investigators. The latter efforts have resulted in the identification of more militant animal rights bands as terrorist groups. The American Medical Association has long been a defender of humane research that employs animals, and it is very concerned about the efforts of animal rights and welfare groups to interfere with research. Recently, the Association prepared a detailed analysis of the controversy over the use of animals in research, and the consequences for research and clinical medicine if the philosophy of animal rights activists were to prevail in society. This article is a condensation of the Association's analysis.

NEW DELHI--Proposed rules to create a government-run system to regulate research using animals have triggered a fierce debate in India. Drafted by a committee chaired by social justice minister Maneka [...]

The National Academy of Sciences plans to revise the standard instruction guide on animal research and care of laboratory animals. People concerned with wildlife believe that the Academy now has a chance to better the treatment of animals. Suggestions to improve the treatment of animals include an increase in cage size and the abandoning of a few research practices. Officials of the National Academy of Sciences require some serious suggestions for this attempt.