What Is The Care For Lab Animals In Psychology

Viktor Reinhardt
Animate being Welfare Institute
Washington, DC

There are now signs also in the United states that the importance of a positive human-beast relationship in research laboratories is appreciated more seriously, and that in addition to knowledge and skills, chief attributes of animal research personnel must be feelings of compassion and sensitivity toward animals to safeguard the reliability of scientific research data.

Kindness and concern for animals in the laboratory accept often been stigmatized as subjective, emotional qualities that can undermine the 'objectivity' of biomedical and psychological research. As such, these qualities have traditionally not been encouraged and fostered in animal inquiry personnel. Even the mere naming of written report subjects has often been questioned as jeopardizing scientific objectivity (Arluke, 1988; Reinhardt, 1998; Wolfle, 2002). Typically a laboratory animal was labeled with an identification code (Arluke, 1988) and considered as a standardized biological enquiry tool (Hummer, 1965; Bowd, 1980) that was referred to as "it" rather than "he" or "she" to guarantee scientific integrity (Reinhardt, 1996). The objectification of laboratory animals was ofttimes associated with a lack of interest in the welfare of the deindividualized research object (cf. Arluke, 1988).

A prestigious investigator acknowledged in a 1987-published article that "nearly investigators think only briefly about the care and handling of their animals and clearly have non made it an important consideration in their work" (Traystman, 1987, p. 108). Many researchers seemingly did non realize the influence of animal husbandry conditions on the animals they studied and the experimental results obtained from them (Davis et al., 1973; Reinhardt, 1991a; Claassen, 1994). "Many principal investigators do non handle animals at all, although a few occasionally may exercise surgery after the animal has been prepared fully by technicians" (Arluke, 1988, p. 104). The traditional lack of concern for animals is near clearly reflected in the federal animate being welfare regulations of 1989 explicitly excluding the by far most common laboratory animals - rats and mice - in their definition of the term "brute" (United States Section of Agronomics, 1989) thereby making them quasi unworthy of compassion and ignoring the possibility that the quality of scientific data nerveless from these unprotected animals may well depend on their well-being.

It should be noted here that affection toward laboratory animals - without exceptions - has been advocated in European legislation already in the 80'south. The European Council Directive points out that "the operation of an animal during an experiment depends very much on its confidence in human being, something which has to exist developed. ... Information technology is therefore recommended that frequent contact should be maintained so that the animals become familiar with human presence and activity. Where appropriate, time should be set aside for talking, treatment and grooming. The staff should be sympathetic, gentle and firm when associating with the animals" (European Economical Community, 1986, p. 13).

There are at present signs also in the Usa that the importance of a positive human-animal human relationship in the enquiry laboratory is appreciated more seriously, and that "in addition to knowledge and skills, chief attributes [of beast research personnel] must be feelings of compassion and sensitivity toward animals" (Halpern-Lewis, 1996, p. 60).

• The American Association for Laboratory Animals Science notes in its 2001-published pamphlet Cost of Caring: Recognizing Human Emotions in the Care of Laboratory Animals that "kindness and business organisation for animals are desirable characteristics of anyone involved in fauna research [and that] the bond betwixt people and animals in the laboratory, if understood and used consistently, tin can minimize certain variables related to stress in the animals" (American Association for Laboratory Animal Science, 2001, p. two).
• The Institute for Laboratory Animal Research devoted the first 2002-effect of its periodical to Implications of Homo-Animal Interactions and Bonds in the Laboratory. The editor of this issue sets the tone with the ascertainment that attachment relationships with the animals in one'southward charge "are the results of compassionate people doing their job right" (Wolfle, 2002, p. 2).
• The Acquaintance Managing director of AAALAC [American Clan for Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Intendance] emphasizes in a 2002-published article that "people who care almost their animals are committed to promoting and ensuring the well-existence of those animals" (Bayne, 2002, p. four) and elaborates that positive relationships "between facility personnel and laboratory animals may event in an overall reduction in stress for the animals and may serve to buffer the potential stress of sure experimental situations resulting from the novelty of the process area, an intellectual challenge, disease conditions, or certain experimental procedures (e.g., gavaging, tail snips, claret sampling). .. Administrators of animal research, testing, and teaching programs should expect for opportunities to encourage the development and maintenance of bonds between personnel and laboratory animals. .. The effect volition be more than refined research, improved animal well-being, and personnel who proceeds more reward from their jobs" (Bayne, 2002, p. viii).
• During a recent Internet discussion on the relationship of laboratory personnel with the animals in their accuse (Anonymous, 2003), almost correspondents agreed that it is almost impossible to remain emotionally distant from the animals (cf., Davis, & Balfour, 1992; Herzog, 2002; Wolfle, 2002) and that emphaty can even prevail in researchers who go to great length to effort to ensure that their data are objective. In that location was a consensus that the emotional attachment provides an assurance that the animals receive optimal intendance, both physically and behaviorally (cf., Mroczek, 1994; Bayne, 2002; Herzog, 2002). This in turn was considered as safeguard that the animals are reliable enquiry subjects yielding scientifically valid exam results (cf., Anchel, 1976; Home Office, 1989; Donnelley, 1990; Warwick, 1990; National Enquiry Council, 1996; Poole, 1997). Several participants of this discussion emphasized that they give names to their animals equally a means to quickly think and recognize individuals (cf., Reese, 1991; de Waal, 1992; Sokol, 1993) or/and as a reflection of their empathy. Information technology was pointed out that taking the time to observe the uniqueness of individual animals and to go to know their species-typical needs well enough to develop empathy for them was a condition for the formation of close ties 'even' with the perhaps less charismatic species.

The promotion of affection towards laboratory animals has scientific and empirical underpinning. Information technology has been shown in rabbits that frequent, gentle handling lessens the animals' fear response during stressful situations (Anderson, Denenberg, & Zarrow, 1972; Kertsen, Meijsser, & Metz, 1989). Rabbits who receive special positive attention from personnel evidence a markedly increased resistance to the development of atherosclerosis compared to subjects who receive no extra attention (Nerem, Levensque, & Cornhill, 1980). Regular gentle handling has a protective outcome on the experimental induction of stomach ulcers in rats (Weininger, 1954). Plainly, the gentle impact provided by the investigtor, technician or careperson is every bit important as the physical environs in giving the animal "a sense of security in the presence of humans who, in other circumstances may subject them to uncomfortable, perhaps even painful procedures" (Boers et al., 2002, p. 47). Regular gentle handling buffers excitability in chickens, rats, sheep, cats, snakes, pigs, rabbits, calves, hamsters (Hughes & Black, 1976; Hirsjärvi & Junnila, 1988; Hargreaves, & Hutson, 1990; Carlstead, Brown, & Strawn, 1993; Kiel, 1995; Rochlitz, 2000; Tanida, Miura, Tanaka, & Yoshimoto, 1995; Jezierski & Konecka, 1996; Lensink, Boivin, Pradel, Le Neindre, & Veissier, 2000; Kuhnen, 2002) and probably in most other laboratory animals as well, while decreasing the corticosterone response to handling (Barnett, Hemsworth, Hennessy, McCallum, & Newman, 1994). It has been noted in several nonhuman primate species that individuals show a reduction in the expression of behavioral pathologies when they receive more attention from friendly personnel (Bayne, Dexter, & Strange, 1993; Choi, 1993; Baker, 1997). Studies with macaques have demonstrated that individuals can readily be trained to cooperate during handling procedures, thus minimizing stress responses resulting from feet and fear, if the handling personnel has a positive relationship based on kindness and trust with the subjects (run across Figure i; Reinhardt, 1991b; Reinhardt, Cowley, Eisele, & Scheffler, 1991; Reinhardt & Cowley, 1992). Empirical evidence suggests that the affectionate bond "conveys to the beast a quiet sense of balls on which coping strategies can be developed for dealing with other stressful aspects of the laboratory" (Wolfle, 1987, p. 1221). Scientific data are notwithstanding missing to substantiate the logical supposition that the presence of personnel with whom an brute has developed a bond based on trust mitigates extraneous, data-influencing reactions associated with stressful experimental procedures (cf., Anchel, 1976). Data on chimpanzees suggest that the presence of an zipper effigy [homo caretaker] attenuates the distress exhibited past young individuals in a novel state of affairs (Miller, Bard, Juno, & Nadler, 1986).

Figure one. Primary attributes of animate being inquiry personnel must exist feelings of compassion toward animals to guarantee their optimal intendance and to minimize stress-related variability of research information nerveless from them.

Pity implies an acute sensation of an individual animal's country of emotional, behavioral and physical well-being and the urge to provide the fauna with the conditions necessary for optimal well-beingness. "In that location is every reason to believe that individuals who care most their wards on a personal level actually treat the animals amend" (Herzog, 2002, p. thirty). Compassion for animals used in research, testing and teaching should not be regarded as subjective simply equally a sound methodological base for scientifically valid animal enquiry (cf., Mahoney, 1992). "Researchers must continue to question the barriers that take traditionally been erected against forming HABs [human-animal bonds] in the name of objectivity and to investigate seriously the ways in which fostering the germination of HABs tin can promote animal welfare without compromising the scientific respectability of inquiry" (Russow, 2002, p. 36-37). Rather than compromising research, these homo-animal bonds should exist considered the very foundation of scientifically sound inquiry methodology. After all, would information technology not exist naïve to expect scientifically reliable research data from an animal who is

• emotionally disturbed (east.thousand., anxiety and fear prior to and during a enquiry-related handling procedure),
• shows behavioral pathologies triggered by species-inappropriate housing conditions (east.one thousand., self-mutilation of individually caged social animals), or
• suffers an unnoticed clinical trouble (eastward.grand., reduced feeding as a result of a decaying tooth)?

A empathetic attitude towards laboratory animals is a safeguard that these extraneous, potentially data-influencing variables are controlled as all-time as possible.

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Reproduced with permission of Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
fromJournal of Applied Animal Welfare Scientific discipline 6 (2), 123-130, 2003

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