Animal Testing Laws And Impacts

Animal Testing Laws and Impacts

Isabela Nolasco

Hewlett High School

AP Seminar: 10th Grade

Mrs.Wagner

December 21, 2022

Animal testing could be controversial because of the potential cruelty to animals. The government over the years has recognized this and has attempted to put laws and policies in place, and formed committees to prevent animal cruelty in the animal testing. But at times these committees and laws are not the strongest or well enforced to be able to do so. Therefore, animal testing has not been stopped or limited. The legal efforts and policies put in place for restrictions and limitations on animal testing have little to no impact on the amount and the way of the animal experiments that take place.

Of these there is AWA or also known as the Animal Welfare Act. The Animal Welfare Act is a law that was put in place with the intent to protect animals and human animal activity. It mainly has “3 purposes: (1) to ensure humane care and treatment of animals in research facilities; (2) to ensure humane treatment of animals while in transport; and (3) to address pet theft and black market sales of animals to research facilities” (Frasch, P. D. , 2017). The AWA’s goals seem to strive for better treatment of animals in all sorts of cases. However, although its goal is to protect animals, it is not protecting all animals.“This law excludes roughly 95 percent of the animals tested upon—such as rats, mice, birds, fish, and reptiles—and provides only minimal protections for the rest. Labs are not required to report non-AWA protected animals.” (Animal Legal Defense Fund, 2022).This won't protect animals in animal testing if it's not protecting all animals tested on. It would inevitably be ineffective. They won't know what's really happening to all the animals in these experiments if they don't get reports on all of the

As it is made up of committees that are devoted to the health and well being of the US public. Of the PHS there are certain policies and groups within it that focus on animal safety. “The Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (PHS Policy), is a set of standards administered by the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW) that require institutions to establish and maintain proper measures to ensure the appropriate care and use of all vertebrate animals involved in research, research training, and biological testing activities conducted or supported by the U.S. Federal Government. ” (National Institutes of Health, 2015). They oversee all groups regarding health including those that test on animals therefore, the use of OLAW is meant to ensure protection of animals in institutions that research using animals. With this being said, Public Health Services oversees the Food Department Association and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which are the two groups that do animal testing the most. These are examples of where OLAW could potentially be used. “The agency requires only written assurance of compliance through the Office of Laboratory Welfare, OLAW. When a facility is found deficient, OLAW takes little action, has no mandated follow-up or on-site inspection.” (Animal Legal Defense Fund, 2022). This policy is