Research animal well-being

Extract

This volume contains the published proceedings of a conference held in late 1991 on institutional compliance with USDA (United States Department of Agriculture) regulations for the well-being of canines and non-human primates in research. The regulations have been criticized and were the subject of legal proceedings even before they were implemented. In February 1993, Judge Richey ruled that the sections concerning dogs and non-human primates were unlawful. So this is a publication that is, not only specific to the United States legal requirements but also, has to some extent been overtaken by events. Some of the papers review the available literature to support their theses, while others are reports of management practices at various institutions. After each paper there are transcripts of question and answer sessions which often suffer from a lack of structure and style. The first half of the book considers dogs, and in this section the emphasis is on the USDA requirements for space and exercise. These are important matters, particularly when the legislation only requires that the cage should be the square of the dog's length plus six inches! Having said that, in the introductory paper Wolfie points out, quite correctly, that far more is known about the social needs of dogs, and that these seem to be more important than small differences in cage or pen size.