20 HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS USED IN RESEARCH 
The purpose of the bill is stated in the title. The bill, if enacted, would establish 
as Federal policy, effective January 1, 1962, that animals used in research, teach- 
ing, or the production of pharmaceuticals by Federal agencies or laboratories 
holding Federal grants or contracts shall be spared avoidable pain, that they 
shall be used only when no other feasible and satisfactory method can be used, 
that the number of animals and the level of development of the species used 
for these purposes shall be reduced as far as possible, and that all animals so 
used shall be comfortably housed, well fed, and humanely treated, specifically 
to include adequate food, space, rest, exercise, sanitation, light, ventilation, 
temperature control, as well as freedom from unnecessary pain. 
The bill provides as the administrative mechanism for implementing such 
policy an agency in the executive branch of the Government to be known as the 
Agency for Laboratory Animal Control, to be headed by a Commissioner. Only 
those Federal agencies obtaining compliance certificates from the Commissioner 
could use any animals in these research programs, and any private laboratory 
using animals in its research program which did not hold such a certificate of 
compliance could not receive grants or awards of contracts or payments there- 
under from Federal agencies. 
Compliance certificates could only be obtained and maintained by those 
laboratories that would submit descriptions of their project plans to the Com- 
missioner, that would keep detailed records of animals and the project premises 
available to inspection by representatives of the Commissioner and of State law- 
enforcement agencies, that would make annual and additional requested reports 
to the Commissioner concerning the live animal procedures used in their research 
project, that would have adequate facilities and personnel (who must have, or 
work under and in the presence of, persons having “letters of qualification” to 
handle experimental animals issued by the Commissioner) which would enable 
the applicant laboratory to comply with the bill’s policy, that would follow cer- 
tain prescribed rules concerning the infliction and avoidance of pain in experi- 
mental animals, and that would satisfy the Commissioner that their research 
projects were not and would not be inconsistent with the above requirements and 
with the bill’s policy generally. 
The Department of the Army, on behalf of the Department of Defense, is 
opposed to the above-mentioned bill, although it is in agreement with the bill’s 
stated pui'pose of providing humane treatment to animals used in research. 
It is present Department of Defense practice to provide humane treatment of 
the live experimental animals used in “in-house” research projects of the Depart- 
ment of Defense, generally in accordance with the bill’s policy, as described in 
section 1 of the bill, and in accord with the principles of laboratory animal care 
of the National Society for Medical Research in this connection, and contractors 
and grantees of the Department of Defense who vise live animals in research 
projects supported by the Department of Defense are expected and encouraged 
to do the same. This factor is already taken into account in the awarding of 
Government grants. Under the circumstances, the requirement set forth in sec- 
tion 10 of the bill that the Commissioner issue letters of qualification to all re- 
search scientists who use laboratory animals, would be, at best, unnecessary 
duplication, and at worst could result in interference with the sponsoring agency’s 
and the laboratory’s choice of personnel best qualified to do the desired research. 
Moreover, this Department does not perceive the need for Federal legislation 
such as is proposed in H.R. 3556, 87th Congress, in the absence of demonstrated 
failure either by the Department of Defense or its contractors and grantees to 
live up to humane standards of treatment of laboratox-y animals. 
In particular detail, the bill is opposed for the following reasons : 
Section 9 of the bill requires that all research plans involving the use of 
animals and supported by Government funds be filed in such form as the Com- 
missioner prescribes, that they describe the nature and purposes of the project 
and the procedures to be employed with respect to living animals, and that such 
plans be approved by the Commissioner as a condition precedent to use of animals 
in experiments by holders of certificates of compliance. Research, by its na- 
ture, is not completely predictable, but proceeds step by step, each depending 
on the result of the preceding step. Inasmuch as succeeding steps may alter 
the procedures, nature and purposes of the project at unpredictable intervals, 
the above requirements would result in confusion, delay, frustrations, lack of 
efficiency, failure to follow pi-omising leads and eventual abandonment of many 
valuable projects. If an investigator were to know in advance the detailed 
steps he would take, which the bill requires him to submit to the Commissioner, 
