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15 Info. Rep.: Animal Welfare Inst. 1 (1966)

handle is hein.animal/awiqu0015 and id is 1 raw text is: January - February - March, 1966 ANIMAL WELFARE INSTITUTE - B P.O0. Box 3492, Grand Central Station, New York, N. Y. 10017 POAGE BILL REPORTED FAVORABLY BY SUBCOMMITTEE Congressman W. R. Poage, Vice Chairman of the House Committee on Agriculture and Chairman of its Livestock and Feed Grains Subcommittee introduced H. R. 12488 authorizing the Secretary of Agriculture to regulate the transportation, sale, and handling of dogs, cats and other animals for purposes of research or ex- perimentation. The bill has just been reported favorably by the Subcommittee. A release from Congressman Poage's of- fice states: Although the bill includes all vertebrates which are used for research or experimentation, the im- pact of this legislation will deal mainly with dogs and cats. The Democrat from Texas, author of the Humane Slaughter Act of 1958, pointed out that research facilities and laboratories last year used well over two million dogs and cats for which they spent almost $50 million. This great scientific demand for dogs and cats has given rise to a vast network of dealers (especially in the Northeast - but all across the nation), some of whom ob- tain these animals in any manner they can, Mr. Poage said, Often they, or their employees, comb the streets, pick- ing up strays and family pets. These animals are then stripped of any identification and removed from the area (generally across state lines) as soon as possible to pre- vent owners reclaiming their stolen pets and to get beyond the reach of state laws. It is not rare for these unfortunate animals to change hands several times before reaching the research institution. Large public auctions are held where other dealers buy the animals and take them on to the laboratory. Many of these dealers make huge pro- fits in this business. I want to emphasize that my bill in no way regulates or restricts the research facility's handling of these ani- mals during actual research or experimentation. The pur- pose of this legsilation is not to interfere with scientific research but to stop the indescribably terrible conditions under which these unfortunate creatures are transported and handled before and after the experimentation. There are several other bills pending on this general subject. I hope this bill contains the best features of each. The bill would require dealers and research facilities to keep records of sale, purchase, and identification, which would always be open to inspection. The Secretary of Agriculture would be authorized to promulgate standards to govern the handling and trans- portation of dogs, cats, and other animals by both dealers (Cont. on page 4) LIFE PHOTOGRAPHS DOGS FOR SALE TO LABORATORIES LIFE Magazine published, on February 4th, an article entitled Concentration Camps for Dogs, which brought home in unmistakably clear terms the ghastly suffering that animals for sale to laboratories are needlessly under- going. The photography of an emaciated English Pointer, pur- chased by the Laboratory Animal Consultant of the Animal Welfare Institute from a dog dealer at an Oklahoma dog auction, covered the first two.pages, and the raid of .a Maryland dog dealer by the Humane Society of the United States followed. On the last pages were Three that made it back to their owners, an English Setter, an Irish Setter, and a crossbred hound who had daily conducted a family of seven children to school, and was picked up on one of his return- trips by the dog warden and sold to Harvard Medical School. A limited number of reprints are available from the Animal Welfare Institute, for those who may have missed the article. Vol. 15, No. 1 While bitter arguments over proper housing of lab- oratory animals have continued over a period of years (humanitarians contending that all species should be provided with a comfortable resting place away from metal mesh, and laboratory directors often contending that it didn't matter), a careful study on the most commonly used laboratory species was done by a veterinary student at Michigan State University. Miss Helene Artsay's paper has been published in M. S. U. VETERINARIAN, Vol. 26, No. 1, and, with the kind permission of author and editor, is reprinted below. A Preliminary Study of the Habitat Preferences of White Mice in a Laboratory Environment Helene Artsay * INTRODUCTION Many types of medical research require strict control of external factors which might influence the physiology of the experimental animals.' It is essential for the inves- tigator to have a thorough knowledge of the animals' pre- ferred living conditions in order to eliminate the possibility of variables due to environmental stress. Moreover, such information helps a conscientious researcher provide the highest quality of care and treatment for his experimental subjects. Inasmuch as white mice are very commonly used as research animals, and there is some controversy as to the best methods of housing them, Z 3, 4 a study of the habitat preferences of these animals might be valuable. MATERIALS AND METHODS In this study, six week old male white mice were given two cages, each containing a different housing arrange- ment, and permitted to choose the cage most to their lik- ing. Four experimental units, one mouse per unit, were used in each experiment. Some experiments were repeated for a total of eight mice tested per choice situation. The experimental unit was adapted from one first dev- eloped and described by Dr. Lee R. Dice.5 The unit con. sisted of two clear plastic cages of the lid-top type, joined by a plastic passageway containing a see-saw treadle to which was attached a mercury switch (see Figure 1). The switch was connected to an electrical timer arranged to make a continuous record in ink on a moving kymograph. As the mouse crossed from one cage to the other, the treadle and mercury switch tipped from one direction to the other. In one direction the switch was disconnected, bypassing the timer, and the pen recorded a straight line on the paper. In the other direction the switch was con- nected and the timer caused the pen to record an inter- rupted line. Inasmuch as the kymograph paper moved at a constant speed it was possible, by measuring the lengths of the ink lines, to determine: a. in which cage the mouse was at any particular time in a twenty-four hour period, b. how much time he spent in each cage, and c. how many times he changed from one cage to the other. The experiments were conducted in a small quiet isolat- ed room, where temperature did not vary more than four degrees in a twenty-four hour period. As further protec- tion against disturbance, the units were placed in a wood- en cabinet curtained with organdy on one side to allow ample air circulation and light. Both cages in a unit were *The author is a senior student in the College of Ve. terinary Medicine, Michigan State University

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