Animal experimentation

Abstract

Millions of animals are used every year in often times extremely painful and distressing scientific procedures. Legislation of animal experimentation in modern societies is based on the supposition that this is ethically acceptable when certain more or less defined formal (e.g. logistical, technical) demands and ethical principles are met. The main parameters in this context correspond to the "3Rs" concept as defined by Russel and Burch in 1959, i.e. that all efforts to replace, reduce and refine experiments must be undertaken. The licensing of animal experiments normally requires an ethical evaluation process, often times undertaken by ethics committees. The serious problems in putting this idea into practice include inter alia unclear conditions and standards for ethical decisions, insufficient management of experiments undertaken for specific (e.g. regulatory) purposes, and conflicts of interest of ethics committees' members. There is an ongoing societal debate about ethical issues of animal use in science. Existing EU legislation on animal experimentation for cosmetics testing is an example of both the public will for setting clear limits to animal experiments and the need to further critically examine other fields and aspects of animal experimentation.

Inconsistencies in data requirements of EU legislation involving tests on animals

“…they include the treaty on the Functioning of the european Union (tFeU), amended in 2009, both the former and the current Directives on the protection of animals used for scientific purposes 3,4 , the european Convention etS 123 5 , and the Animal Welfare Acts of eU Member States. Provisions to protect animals used for scientific purposes all share common principles, to wit: each experiment must be essential for a given purpose; the number of animals must be reduced to a minimum; pain, suffering, and harm also must be reduced to a minimum; and pain, suffering and harm caused to the animals must be ethically justifiable (Kolar, 2006). This means that whatever method of obtaining scientifically satisfactory results that does not use animals or uses fewer animals, should be employed.…”

A survey concerning the work of ethics committees and licensing authorities for animal experiments in Germany

“…for the safety testing of cosmetics products or ingredients, when the marketing of these substances requires the suffering of thousands of laboratory animals, it should be indispensable to assess the justification for this suffering. No concept yet exists for an ethical scheme to address this issue in practice, but it seems clear that whenever animal testing is involved, the assessment of its justifiability would require addressing the society's need for the substance or product in question, as long as the law requires animal tests for the marketing or use of that substance or product (Kolar, 2006).…”

Efeitos morfológicos, histológicos e moleculares dos moduladores seletivos dos receptores de estrogênios tamoxifeno e raloxifeno na prevenção primária de tumores mamários quimicamente induzidos em ratas

“…Depois, os animais foram encaminhados para incineração. (Barros et al, 2003;Schanaider e Souza, 2003;Kolar, 2006).…”

“…Em nossa pesquisa, nenhum animal ficou doente ou sofreu desequilíbrio nutricional e todas as ratas tiveram a mesma alimentação e hidratação (Barros et al, 2001a(Barros et al, , 2001b(Barros et al, , 2003Schanaider e Souza, 2003;Kolar, 2006).…”

“…Existem comercialmente equipamentos para deslocamento cervical ou decapitação. A decapitação com guilhotina poder ser usada quando se necessita de sangue ou tecido orgânicos sem contaminação química (Barros et al, 2001a(Barros et al, , 2001b(Barros et al, , 2003Gauthier e Griffin, 2005;Kolar, 2006).…”