ETHICS - LAB ANIMALS

Legislation concerning Animal Welfare

History:

17/18 century animals used in cock fight, bull fight, dog fight

Normal act (a part of everyday life)

First Parliament Act passed in 1823 in England

RSPCA found in1824

The British Cruelty to Animals Act 1876 - national law

1846, intro of chloroform & aseptic surgical tech 

1873, Burdon Sanderson wrote "The Handbook for the Physiology Laboratory Animals"

In US, Laboratory Animal Welfare Act done by USDA (Dept of Agriculture)

- provide Standard care of common lab species during transport and within a research facilities

The Surgical procedures are explained by the Institutional of Animal Care and Use committee (IACUC)

ensure the care and use of animals for scientific purposes are humane and ethical

ensure the use of animals for research is justified, and incorporates the principles of 3Rs

Malaysia's Animals Act of 1953 (AA) is the country's major piece of animal welfare legislation

Under the AA, a person commits an offense of animal cruelty if they “cruelly beats, kicks, ill-treats, overrides, overdrives, overloads, tortures, infuriates or terrifies any animal." 

Specific offenses include failing to supply sufficient food or water to an animal in confinement or transport; confining an animal in a way that causes unnecessary suffering; fighting or baiting animals; using an unfit animal for work or labor; and killing, poising, maiming, or rendering useless an animal. There are exceptions for killing livestock for food, as well as hunting, in which the use of painful traps is not expressly prohibited.

The Malaysian Penal Code distinguishes between animals worth at least RM5, and those worth at least RM25; penalties for cruelty against the latter group are heavier, indicating the protection of animals as property as one of the goals of Malaysian anti-cruelty statutes

AWA 2015

In 2015, following calls from animal protectionists for stronger animal welfare legislation, Malaysia passed a new Animal Welfare Act (AWA). 

The AWA establishes an animal welfare board to the monitor work of animal protection associations; requires licenses for all individuals and businesses that use animals; prohibits breeding animals for research or teaching; bans the shooting of stray dogs; and grants courts the power to disqualify or deprive any owner or licensee from owning an animal indefinitely. 

The AWA also increases the penalty for cruelty from the AA's maximum of a RM200 fine and/or up to 6 months imprisonment, to a fine between RM20,000 and RM100,000 and/or up to 3 years in prison. 

Enforcement

Penalties for cruelty towards animals have historically been very mild. 

In 2005, when a dog suffered such neglect that it had to be euthanized, its owner was fined RM100. 

In 2011, a woman who tortured and stomped kittens to death was fined RM400. 

In 2012, a person who poured boiling water on a stray dog was fined RM200. 

In another 2012 incident, the owners of a cat hotel left 150 cats unattended long enough that they suffered severe starvation and dehydration. They were charged RM6000 for 30 counts of cruelty and neglect and given 3 months in prison. This was the first time an animal cruelty case had reached the Malaysian High Court and the first time a sentence of more than a few days in prison had been given for an animal cruelty conviction. 

In 2013, a woman was sentenced to one year in prison for killing her employer's dog. 

GLP

FDA

Ethics = moral philosophy

An analysis of the assumption, arguments and reasoning used to arrive at a particular moral view point  

The involuntary responses to painful stimuli are similar to those in man 

However, the major difference that animals are unable to communicate or to describe their feeling as in humans

Principles of animal care

The provision of humane care of animals in research and teaching will be assured by adherence to the following principles: 

All projects involving the use of animals must be approved by the Animal Research Ethics Board in accordance with the regulations of the faculty.

Animals will only be used when alternative procedures are not feasible. 

The species will be carefully selected to ensure the most effective use of animals. 

The least invasive techniques possible will be employed. 

The number of animals used will be the minimum required to achieve the objectives of the research/teaching program. 

Alleviation/reduction of pain and distress will be of prime concern during and following all procedures. 

All animals will be cared for according to current veterinary standards.

3R

Russell and Burch (1959) in their book “The principles of Humane Experimental Techniques” 

Put forward the scientific argument of animal research 

Suggest the efficient and human use of animals 

Provide more reliable results 

The concept of 3 Rs:

Reduction 减少动物实验

Reduction of the total number of animal used to the minimum necessary 

The number of animals should be reduced to the minimum consistent with achieving the scientific objectives of the study, recognizing that important biological effects may be missed if too few animals are used. 

Alternatively, methods should be found to obtain more information from each experiment, thus speeding up the pace of research. 

This can be achieved by careful control of variation and by appropriate experimental design and statistical analysis. 

Replacement 代替动物，可用C. elegans

The use of non animal techniques whenever possible 

Animals should be replaced in experiments by less sentient alternatives such as invertebrates or in vitro methods whenever possible. 

For example, a lot of fundamental work is done using C. elegans, Drosophila, fungi and bacteria. If the alternative had been to use mice or rats, these studies count as replacement alternatives. 

Refinement 细化精炼技术， 减少stress，可使用麻醉镇痛，有经验的staff

Refinement of techniques used, both to assist in the reduction of animal usage and to reduce any potential stress to a minimum

If animal experiments can not be avoided protocols should be refined to minimize any adverse effects for each individual animal. 

Appropriate anaesthesia and analgesia should be used for any surgical intervention. 

Humane endpoints should be used whenever possible. 

Staff should be well trained, and housing should be of a high standard with appropriate environmental enrichment. 

Animals should be protected from pathogens. 

Re-evaluate/assessment 

Numbers of animals used and fields of research

Mouse 

Pharmaceutical, cosmetic, virology, neoplasia/cancer, congenital defects, obesity, aging

Rats 

Aging, drug effects and toxicity, neoplasia, jaundice, infectious disease

Rabbits 

Hydrocephalus, hyperthermia, ophthalmology, arteriosclerosis, cosmetics 

Guinea Pigs 

Hamsters 

Experiment purpose:

Academic – extending scientific understanding 

Technical – improving methods/technique 

Drug screening – finding new treatments 

Product development – checking the compound efficacy + safety

Experimental design

5W1H

Aspects:

Define purpose, objective of experiments 

Consider legal restriction 

Consider the use of alternatives 

Consider species/strain 

Assess experience available staff 

Define suitable environment 

Identify quality, cost and availability of animals 

Assess hazards 

At the end of experiments: 

Animal disposal 

Review technical performance 

results

Animal liberation

In the mid 1970s Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher, wrote a book called Animal Liberation. 

In it he outlined the ethical principle of equal consideration of interests. 

This principle is designed to help us work out if the ways we use animals are acceptable or not. 

It is applied to those higher order animals which can suffer or can be harmed by our actions. 

It is not applied to any lower order animals which are unable to suffer or be otherwise harmed. 

Some animal protection groups use these ideas to support their wish to abolish what they call “exploitation” of animals by people. 

Exploitation to them means any ill-use of animals by people which harms the animals by taking their lives or causing suffering. 

Such exploitation includes the use of animals in research, teaching and testing, and in farming, circuses and zoos. 

For some groups it includes all use of animals by people, even keeping pets. The aim of such groups is to free – to liberate 

Animal rights

In the early 1980s Tom Regan, an American thinker, developed the notion of animal rights. 

The idea of animal rights is that each conscious animal (individual or species) has “inherent value” 

Inherent/Natural value has nothing to do with how useful the animal is to people, nor with what we might feel about the animal whether we like it, welcome or fear it, admire or not Thus, a snake, a rat, a sheep, a dog, a monkey and a person each has inherent value. Giving equal rights to all such animals protects their inherent value and confers on those animals moral status.

Clearly, giving equal rights to animals and people means that they would deserve equal protection against death, suffering and other harm. Regan argued that all dealings people have with animals involve some form of exploitation of the animals’ rights.

Antivivisection

Means against live cutting (antivivi-section) 

In other words, opposition to the cutting into or dissection of living animals. 

People who oppose such cutting operations are known as “antivivisectionists”. 

The antivivisection movement began in Britain in the mid 1800s to stop the cruel practice of trying to find out how the body works by cutting open living, fully conscious animals. 

Animal welfare

Emphasizes how well an animal is coping with its environment and how well it is being managed by people. 

When an animal’s major needs are being met its welfare is good. 

There are five main areas of need. 

These areas of need can guide us when we want to find out how to prevent an animal’s welfare from being harmed.

Animal needs

nutritional, environmental, health, behavioral and mental needs

Water

Food

Oxygen 

External temperature:

Of the vertebrate groups, amphibians, reptiles and fish are cold-blooded -take on the temperature of their environment. Most have thin skin. 

Birds and mammals are termed warm-blooded, can regulate their own body temperature. 

However, some mammals, such as bears, gophers and bats, hibernate during the winter to avoid colder temperatures. Hibernation allows animals to live off stored body fat and drop their body temperature to about 50 degrees Fahrenheit. 

Habitat:

Each animal needs a place to live -a place where it can find food, water, oxygen and the proper temperature. A habitat also offers shelter from the elements, protection from predators, a mate for reproduction and a place to rear its young. 

Some examples of habitats are deciduous and coniferous forests, wetlands, deserts, savannahs, rainforests and the ocean. 

Some animals use multiple places to their advantage. For example, some birds fly over grasslands searching for food but build their nest in dense forests or treetops.