264 HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS USED IN RESEARCH 
In most institutions, if animals under experimentation die, seldom 
is a post mortem conducted to determine why it died, whether it re- 
sulted from the experiment. The whole thing is thrown out, and the 
experiment started again. This is wasteful and causes unnecessary 
suffering to the experimental animal. I was refused permission to 
visit the kennels of another laboratory. While talking to the doctor 
in charge, I asked him if sedation was used to ease the suffering of 
animals in prolonged painful experiments. He raised his eyebrows 
and said, “Suffering — science has not proved yet that animals suffer. 
To think they suffer is anthropomorphism. We believe that any reflex 
or reaction is instinct and is not induced by a sensation of pain.” 
One of the employees of that institution resigned because he could 
not bear to hear the animals cry. The employee did not think it was 
wrong as it was a research laboratory and the animals had to suffer. 
This same doctor and some of the dealers are members of the animal 
care panel which is supposed to develop standards for the care of 
laboratory animals. It may be noted in the standards they have pro- 
posed that nothing is said as to the elimination of painful unnecessary 
repetitious experiments. 
This staggering expenditure of life and suffering goes on without a 
single governmental check or control. Moreover it is costly. Because 
of the easy availability of money for research purposes, researchers 
go on piling up vast statistical totals far past the point where this 
could affect the results. Under the laissez-faire system which now pre- 
vails in medical research there is no check whatever upon the waste- 
ful repetition of experiments for which the taxpayer pays ; no check 
on careless planning, no check on the outright sadist, who surrounds 
his real subconscious motive with a fog of scientific terms. 
Millions of dollars are appropriated by the Congress each year for 
medical and related research purposes. Millions are contributed from 
private sources for the same purpose, and yet there is no central au- 
thority or clearinghouse over animal experimentation. 
There is no authority to say to an ambitious experimenter that cer- 
tain extremely painful tests must be carefully scrutinized to deter- 
mine whether the research is important enough to inflict such pain on 
a living creature. 
By making millions of dollars available for medical research with 
no strings attached except the imagination of the researcher, the tax- 
payers are subsidizing scientific boondoggling and repetitious waste. 
In view of the foregoing, I respectfully urge your favorable report 
on bills H.R. 1937 and H.R. 3356. 
Mr. Roberts. Thank you very much for your appearance and 
statement. 
(The following document was submitted for the record:) 
Virginia Federation of Humane Societies, Inc., 
Committee on Laboratory Animals, 
Arlington, Va., September 11, 1961. 
CONSCIENCE AND THE LABORATORIES 
Within the past decade medical research has mushroomed into a giant industry 
which demands the sacrifice of several hundred million animals a year. 
Three times as many dogs are used for training surgeons as were used 5 years 
ago. Ten times as many dogs, cats, and other animals are used for testing food 
additives, cosmetics, insecticides, and so on, as were used in 1956. 
