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Articles and Reports The Animal Experimentation Scandal (2005 Updated Report): Introduction Animal experimentation is an issue that raises controversy whenever
it is discussed. It has been the center of controversy for decades.
Animal rights activists have held hundreds of protests on this issue.
The pro-experimentation lobby opposes any new regulation of the field.
However, one of the most controversial issues about animal
experimentation is the direction in which it is going. No one seems to
know if animal experimentation is increasing or decreasing. Are more
animals being experimented on today than ten years ago, or are fewer
animals imprisoned in laboratories? Definitive answers to these
questions are difficult to obtain. Accuracy is difficult because
reporting requirements do not currently cover many of the most commonly
used species. Therefore, we are left with a very incomplete picture. Reports issued by the USDA/APHIS (the government agency charged with
enforcing the Animal Welfare Act) on an annual basis are difficult to
assess. While they seem to indicate trends, these trends are often
fraught with uncertainty. The exclusion of commonly used species (rats,
mice, birds, amphibians, etc.) from the regulatory process is one
concern. Additionally, there seems to be a constant problem with
reporting. Many labs simply seem not to file the necessary forms in time
for their statistics to be included in this report. In the six-year
period between 1996 and 2001 there was not a single year when all
facilities reported. With significant amounts of experimentation
centered in certain large labs, non-reporting by even a few labs can
substantially skew national totals. Additionally, major reporting
inconsistencies have been uncovered regarding both the compilation
process used by the USDA and the accuracy of the reports filed by major
facilities. Therefore, it is highly likely that the USDA statistics
often utilized as a basis for examinations of animal experimentation
trends may be flawed beyond repair. Where does that leave us? Unfortunately, nowhere. No other reports
provide data which give a picture that is any better. Therefore we have
undertaken a different method of assessing the direction of animal
experimentation. Unfortunately, it is not possible to assess every aspect of animal
experimentation. Private labs are often not particularly forthcoming
with information, and government agencies can take months to turn over
documents. The CRISP (Computer Retrieved Information on Scientific Projects)
database catalogues every research project funded by seven different
parts of the federal government via a grant, whether it involves animals
or clinical research. Evaluation of this database provides a good
indication of animal experimentation within these agencies and, by
generalization, throughout the rest of the government. This can then
potentially be generalized to represent animal experimentation as a
whole.
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