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Articles and Reports The Animal Experimentation Scandal (2005 Updated Report): Summary In summary, it appears that the current system for grant approval has
been constituted in such a way as to provide for the approval of almost
any grant for an animal experimentation project, with few motivations
for a project to be disapproved. The individuals involved in the
approval process often have a vested interest in approving grants, with
little or no incentive to disapprove grants. The existing system has led to a steady climb (30,426 for 2003
projects in target species, a 42% increase for a ten-year period) in the
number of animal experimentation projects funded by the NIH over the
last ten years. A conservative estimate of the current annual
expenditure for animal based experimentation as it is funded by the
National Institutes of Health exceeds $12 billion which is a 156%
increase for a ten-year period. 50 nationally known laboratories (which account for receive an
average of roughly $144 million annually for the performance of animal
experimentation (see Appendix B for individual facility totals), 33 of
these facilities receive over $100 million per year, and ten have
reached approximately $200 million or more (the top lab received $440
million). Since laboratories have a monetary interest in performing as
much experimentation as possible, it is expected that without radical
changes to the grant approval process these numbers of animal
experiments will continue to increase. Sixteen of these top labs for
receiving federal funding for animal experimentation are also among the
25 offenders for violating federal laws regarding animal care. This
table is available as Appendix C. Several specific areas of experimentation have been examined to study
the issue of experimental duplication. 175 separate projects study
neural information processing in macaque monkeys, with 127 of these
studying visual neural information processing. Additionally, 399 grants
study cocaine in rats, mice or macaque monkeys potentially using more
than $160 million annually. These agencies are also currently funding
587 animal studies on alcohol in rats, mice or macaque monkeys that
consume an estimated $235 million each year. These areas of addiction
research expend $452 million annually. Should we consider re-directing
this funding towards programs that directly benefit humans suffering
from substance abuse? Another substantial area of duplication, which has
been questioned by medical experts, is cancer research in rodents. These
seven agencies currently fund 3904 grants for rodent-based cancer
research with an annual cost of $1.6 billion. When all of these areas of duplication are taken together they total
roughly $2.1 billion or 17% of the overall total for the funding of
animal experiments by these agencies. Clearly, there are probably many
more areas of duplication in the use of animals in experimentation. The
cost of redundancy is clearly in the billions. The consumption of this funding in animal experiments may also
prevent U.S. citizens from accessing the social programs that they need.
How many people could be funded in substance abuse programs with the
$452 million that is currently directed at animal experiments in
addiction? How many of them will die for lack of treatment? What will
the cost be to our society in health care, criminal justice and other
programs because these people weren’t treated? What is more important
keeping multi-million dollar laboratories open, or keeping U.S. citizens
alive? It is time that we end the process of writing the research community
a $12 billion blank check every year for the purpose of performing
animal experimentation with little more than a vague hope that any real
benefits will result. Every day the National Institutes of Health (NIH),
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services (SAMHSA), Health Resources
and Services Administration (HRSA), Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP), Agency for Health
Care Research and Quality (AHRQ), and Office of Assistant Secretary of
Health (OASH) spends over $33,396,161 on animal experiments. Shouldn’t
we be examining this whole process much more closely? A radical restructuring of the grant approval system and the
Institutional Animal Care & Use Committee system is necessary to prevent
further waste of federal tax dollars and animal lives.
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