Ethics of Research involving animals
Summary
4.60 In the first part of this Chapter we considered philosophical and evolutionary aspects of assessing pain, harm, distress and suffering in animals (see paragraphs 4.5 and 4.29–4.30). It is in principle impossible to get ‘inside the mind’ of an animal, however, just as with other humans, it is possible to make meaningful approximations. In the spirit of critical anthropomorphism, scientific evidence, based on objectively measurable clinical signs, can be combined with more subjective data, obtained, for example, by drawing on empathy.
Humans must inevitably apply concepts such as pain, suffering and distress, which are used commonly and successfully in human–human interactions, when making welfare assessments for animals. These can be useful terms if applied with care. Care is also required when making inferences based on familiarity, empathy and methodological observation. Comparisons to human states have limitations in cases where animals are less similar to humans. Animals also may possess senses that humans lack, such as the ability to hear ultrasound. In assessing pain, harm, distress and suffering in animals it is therefore necessary not only to compare animals’ capacities to those of humans, but also to examine their species-specific capacities and needs.
4.61 In the second part of the chapter we examined in more detail a range of possible sources of harm for laboratory animals. We considered several general issues that need to be taken into account relating to breeding, transport, housing, husbandry and care, handling, restraint, identification, procedures, adverse effects of the procedures, and euthanasia. For an adequate evaluation of the harms or ‘costs’ to research animals, the full lifetime experience of the animals must be carefully assessed and given due weighting. Whether or not the welfare of animals is negatively affected depends on the type of research, the standards of particular laboratory facilities that may vary in the way in which they seek to exceed minimum regulatory requirements, and the skill and motivation of those handling the animals to implement Refinements. It is practically impossible to make generalisations about likely costs to the animals, and each case of research needs to be considered individually. Further descriptions of welfare implications of specific types of research are provided in Chapters 5–9. We return to ethical issues raised by animal research in Chapters 14 and 15.