Federal Laws and Policies Governing Animal Research

Though animals have always been viewed as property by the legal system, one can glean some notion of their changing moral status in society by examining the laws that have been, and continue to be, promulgated to assure their welfare. This is true of animals in general as well as, more recently, of animals used in research. Traditionally, beginning in the early nineteenth century, the only protection legally accorded to animals was provided by state laws prohibiting cruelty. The purpose of these laws was to prevent or punish blatant and overt cruelty to animals, thus qualifying to some extent their basic status as property. These laws were aimed at willful, malicious, intentional acts of cruelty, either blatant sadism or wanton negligence, such as not supplying them with food or water, and all standard practices that caused harm to animals in pursuit of human “necessity”—interpreted as economic or other benefit—were excluded from their purview. 1 Thus, common practices in agriculture, rodeo, hunting, trapping research, testing, or entertainment were by definition not actionable on grounds of cruelty, however much animal harm and suffering might follow in their wake. As one Colorado judge remarked, these statutes are as much designed to protect the human population from sadists and psycholpaths who might begin with animals and escalate to humans as to protect the animals. 2 These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.