90 HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS USED IN RESEARCH 
clearly have to let the Secretary know of this change. I have some plans as 
used under the British act if the committee wishes to examine them. As you 
can see they are brief. 
What is the purpose of filing project plans? From the moral standpoint, to 
encourage the most humane design of experiments. From the practical stand- 
point, to make possible effective enforcement of the measure without needlessly 
waisting the time of the scientist or the inspector. If inspectors had to start 
from a basis of complete ignorance of the experiments being carried on, they 
would have to ask a great many questions, get corroboration from others, and 
end up perhaps with a confused report, aggravating to all concerned. But when 
the inspector has the facts in hand, the project plans clearly in mind, and finds 
the cages properly marked, he can do an efficient job of inspection within a short 
time, and, if all is in order, be on his way again. 
H.R. 1937 would not in any way hamper humane and responsible scientists. 
An even stricter law in England has not hampered them. In England the ex- 
perimental plans must have prior approval from the home office. Under H.R. 
1937 the potential delay, which conceivably might occur in our much larger 
country, has been eliminated by placing the burden on the Secretary to dis- 
approve if he believes the law is being violated, but not to require prior approval. 
At the end of the year each licensee would send to the Secretary of Health, 
Education, and Welfare reprints of his work published during the year and 
a brief report on the number of animals used, procedures used, and names of 
coworkers. Thus the previous records are annually confirmed. Here is a sample 
of the one-page form for the animal report under the British law. As you can 
see, it is not demanding. No more than half an hour would be required to fill 
it out. 
To conclude the list of basic principles of the bill, it should be noted that it 
applies to all vertebrate animals. These are the animals whose central nervous 
system is more or less similar to our own, who have brains and spinal cords and 
nerves which, among the mammals especially, closely follow the human pattern. 
It is clearly essential that all these creatures be treated with humane con- 
sideration. 
I would like to place in the record a letter from Dr. P. L. C. Carrier, recently 
retired Chief Inspector, carrying out the provisions of the British act of 1876. 
1 hope that we may have a man of equal stature working directly from the 
Secretary’s office, not — and I wish to emphasize this point — from the National 
Institutes of Health or the Public Health Service, to administer H.R. 1937. 
H.R. 1937 is a very moderate bill. It is opposed both by those who say it is 
too strong and those who say it is too weak. It is not a bill that aims to 
punish, rather it provides a strong incentive for humane design of experiments 
and humane care of animals. At present, there is virtually no incentive for 
scientists to plan experiments humanely— the only one I know is that I men- 
tioned earlier by the American Physiological Society, and it is weak and variable. 
But if a scientist were aware that his project plan might not be accepted if his 
planning were needlessly inhumane, he would take the trouble to devise a 
more humane method. If he knows his license might be suspended or even re- 
voked for failure to comply with the humane requirements of the law he would 
take the trouble to see that his animals were decently cared for and not abused. 
Other proponents of this legislation will, do doubt, emphasize the waste of funds 
that is a concomitant of the irresponsible attitude with respect to animals 
which is so widely seen in laboratories today, so I will merely point out that 
while the cost of administering H.R. 1937 would not be great, the amount of 
taxpayers’ funds it would save would be very large indeed. And in saving 
these funds it would simultaneously be saving something much more important — 
a thing which it is essential to save if we are to call ourselves civilized — that 
is needless suffering of animals being used for our benefit to protect us against 
the sickness and annihilation that we fear. 
Mr. Koberts. Thank you, Mrs. Stevens. 
We appreciate your very tine statement and the exhibits which you 
have sent up to the committee for its examination. I see that we are 
running pretty close to the noon hour. I would like to see if I can 
make some arrangements to proceed with the two witnesses from Great 
Britain after we resume the hearing this afternoon, which will be at 
2 o’clock, and, before we recess, I would like to talk to Dr. Jones to 
