HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS USED IN RESEARCH 47 
IMMOBILIZATION OF UNANESTHETIZED ANIMALS 
Immobilization of conscious animals by means of physical restraint has be- 
come commonplace. The cruel, old punishment of putting men in the stocks has 
found a new expression in the monkey chair, the various similar restrainers for 
rabbits, hamsters, and rats which are advertised and publicized, and, to a some- 
what lesser degree, the Pavlov stand and similar restrainers for dogs. 
The passionate protest of a dog against his stand is described by Pavlov in his 
“Conditioned Reflexes” and after describing how he “inhibited the freedom re- 
flex” by withholding all food from the dog except when it was in the stand, how it 
lost much weight, but finally gave in, he states: “It is clear that the freedom 
reflex is one of the most important reflexes or, if we use a more general term, 
reactions, of living beings. * * * Some animals as we all know have this free- 
dom reflex to such a degree that when placed in captivity they refuse all food, 
sicken and die.” 
It is not the purpose of the AWI to condemn all use of physical restraint. 
Rather, it is the purpose to call attention to increasingly widespread use of 
methods which should be used only when they are absolutely necessary, and 
further to ask humane scientists to consider whether these and other distressing 
experimental procedures are being used casually as a matter of course, without 
serious effort on the part of users to substitute more humane experimental 
design. 
Letters to the AWI from experienced scientists concerning ill-planned and 
useless research confirm the comments quoted earlier from the AMA Journal. 
With this thought in mind, we quote excerpts on methods reported in The 
American Journal of Physiology. In making this presentation it is empha- 
sized that no judgment is being made on the value of any of the experiments 
mentioned. They are selected simply to illustrate types of experimental pro- 
cedure which we hope most scientists agree should not be undertaken lightly. 
“Five rhesus monkeys (3-4.5 kilograms, four males and one female) had 
stainless steel electrodes implanted stereotaxically with a Labtronics instru- 
ment. * * * The animals were maintained at all times in primate chairs. 
“* * * In the absence of lever pressing a 10-milliamperes shock, preceded by 
a 10-second warning clicker, was delivered to the monkey’s feet every 40 seconds 
and lasted for a maximum of 15 seconds. Each lever press, however, post- 
poned the shock for 40 seconds. * * * 
“* * * Since the animals were well trained on an avoidance schedule, any 
painful or unpleasant stimuli could be expected to reinstate and sustain avoid- 
ance responding. Stimulation of the medial forebrain bundle area did not 
produce this effect. * * *” (American Journal of Physiology, October 1960). 
It should be noted that the monkeys were maintained at all times in primate 
chairs, that is, in a sitting position with the head protruding through a hole 
in a plastic slab. The above and the folio-wing experiment describe stimulation. 
Stimulators are commercially produced and advertised, and one of the nu- 
merous models is recommended in the promotional literature as follows : “The 
controls are sufficiently uncomplicated for undergraduate student use, yet the 
range of variables is such that the ‘751’ is quite at home in the research lab. 
Stepped controls of frequency and duration allow resetting to provide consistent, 
repeatable experiments.” 
Another experiment using the combination of stimulation with physical re- 
straint of unanesthetized cats is described in the January 1961 issue of the 
journal. It states, in part: “The first animals were restrained by means of a 
wide leather collar. This method was inadequate since some head movement 
was possible and also because struggling soon commenced and prevented ade- 
quate recording. Plaster casts were individually fitted for all succeeding cats. 
The casts were cut along the midline to provide two close-fitting shells and. 
prior to each testing, the animals were replaced in the casts. Infrequently a 
brief period of anesthesia, induced by trichloroethylene inhalation, was required 
for recasting untamed cats. * * * 
“Rigidly restrained monkeys assume a sleeplike state, and arousal is difficult 
to maintain. Cats in this experiment responded in a similar fashion * * * 
“* * * the application of shocks throughout a series of trials with systematic 
adjustment to produce a flat EEG pattern accompanied by frequent vocaliza- 
tions should have insured general arousal * * * 
“* * * severe measures are taken to maintain arousal.” 
