HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS USED IN RESEARCH 97 
All that the bill could accomplish, if enacted, would be (1) the elimination 
of that type of suffering which is connected with the housing and general 
treatment of the animals before and after they have undergone experimentation, 
and (2) the provision of an anaesthetic during painful operational procedures 
when this would not interfere with the validity of the result. 
AVOIDABLE SUFFERING 
At this point one may well stop to consider what the very presentation of 
this bill to the Senate implies — nay, positively proves. It provides a clear, if 
disconcerting and even shocking admission that in the scientific research labora- 
tories throughout the States there has been, and still is at the present time, 
a vast amount of avoidable and therefore needless suffering on the part of 
experimental animals which is solely due to what the Washington Post (June 
6, 1960) described as the “carelessness, callousness, ignorance, and wanton 
neglect” evinced by the persons and authorities whose responsibility includes 
the proper care of the animals while under experiment. 
The sponsors of the bill must have accumulated unchallengeable evidence of the 
widespread nature of this abuse. No one would be so foolish as to propose 
legislation against an abuse that did not exist, especially when to press for 
such legislation is to court unpopularity and invite the most bitter criticism 
from powerful interests and scientific authorities. 
In establishing this long-contested charge as a fact the sponsors of the bill 
have earned the gratitude of those who desire to expose the whole shameful 
setup of animal experimentation to the public gaze and seek, as the only 
practical solution to the problem, the total abolition of a practice which in so 
many instances involves the infliction of an amount and degree of pain, misery, 
or suffering which defies computation and beggars description. 
PAIN AND SUFFERING 
It will be useful at this point to give brief details of the sort of experiments — 
involving pain and suffering — which have been legally performed within fairly 
recent years under the provisions of the British 1876 act and which would still 
be permissible under the restrictions set out in bill S. 3570. 
1. Acute intestinal obstruction (in dogs). This involved tying-ofif (under 
anaesthesia) different portions of the intestinal canal with tapes so that nothing 
could pass through the body. On recovery from the anaesthetic, the animals 
were kept under observation, fed through a catheter inserted in the intestinal 
canal below the obstruction, and in some cases deprived of all but an occasional 
sip of water. This continued for several weeks until the animals died from 
peritonitis or some other acute condition which must have caused considerable 
suffering. 
2. Testing the value of analgesic drugs in mitigating the pain of extreme heat 
by placing rats on plates made of metal and heated to a temperature of 60° to 70° 
Centigrade and noting their behavior (reaction to pain) before and after the 
administration of the drug. It is to be noted that the temperture of 60° Centi- 
grade is that commonly used for producing a standard experimental burn 
on an animal with a heated iron applied for 1 minute. 
3. The application of drops of caustic poison gas (Lewisite) into the eyes 
of rabbits, producing various degrees of pain, acute inflammation of the eye, 
perforation of the cornea and eventual destruction of the whole eyeball, no 
anaesthetic being given at any stage of the experiment. 
4. Subjection of many types of animals to poison gases, such as phosgene, in 
glass-fronted observation chambers or on the open field, no anesthetic being given 
throughout the experiment. 
SEVERE BURNS 
5. The infliction of severe burns on the bodies of animals, sometimes covering 
large areas, by means of hot irons or scalding water, or the application of phos- 
phorus or similar chemical. After recovery from anesthesia, keeping under 
observation for indefinite periods while sepsis developed or some form of treat- 
ment was applied. 
6. Other procedures, including the prevention of sleep ; deprivation of food or 
water ; subjection to repeated drowning and resuscitation ; the injection of septic 
material or toxic drugs into muscles, organs, brains, or nervous system ; the 
production of severe shock by high explosives, by blows on the limbs with a 
