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Bernard E. Rollin, PhD on Pain and Distress Experienced by Laboratory Animals To Whom it may Concern: Surveys indicate that public support for biomedical research on
animals is inversely proportional to the amount of pain, suffering, and
distress the animals undergo. As the groundswell of public, bipartisan
support for the creation of laws requiring the control of pain and
distress attests, the public has a serious interest in such control. In the event that control of pain and distress is deemed
uncontrollable by researchers, and the Institutional Animal Care and Use
Committee concurs, there is a legal and moral obligation to the public
to report such uses, given the aforementioned societal concern that
research animals not suffer. These uses must be reported to USDA as
falling under pain category E. In many cases at my own institution, the
Committee has worked diligently to modify such protocols so as to limit
pain. In some cases this is done through early endpoints; in other cases
analgesic regimens not affecting relevant variables can be found.)
Failure to report protocols involving extended and unmitigated pain and
distress, as occurs in prolonged restraint, food and water deprivation,
carrying disease research to death as an endpoint, is legally and
morally reprehensible. The public must be permitted to know what harm is
inflicted on animals in its name, and to judge the acceptability of such
projects. Sincerely, Bernard E. Rollin PhD University Distinguished Professor See also:
Government Grants Promoting Cruelty to Animals
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