HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS USED IN RESEARCH 313 
Statement of Bennett M. Derby, M.D. 
I would like to stress my deep interest in the proposed bills, H.R. 1937 and 
S. 3088. In my opinion, such bills would help rectify any unnecessary or irre- 
sponsible use of animals in experimental work and would enforce the needed 
minimum standard of humane husbandry, all of which has been so successfully 
carried out in England. 
I believe it is to our detriment that we have, up to now, had no such national 
standard in our laboratories. I have had occasion, in the past, to use animals 
in experimental work, and have seen highly humane care and consideration for 
the animals ; but, on the other hand, I have seen inexcusably lax and estheticaliy 
sickening conditions in some laboratories. It is the latter type of situation which 
would be eliminated to a great degree by the proposed bills. 
It is my sincerest hope that the wisdom of such legislation will be recognized 
and put into effect. 
Statement of Mrs. June E. Foye, Secretary, Commission on Christian Social 
Concerns, Vancouver Avenue Methodist Church, Portland, Oreg. 
The Commission on Christian Social Concerns of our church, which has as one 
of its concerns the humane treatment of animals, is greatly disturbed by authen- 
ticated reports of the inhumane and often brutal treatment of experimental 
animals by incompetent and callous researchers in many laboratories throughout 
this country, and we earnestly implore Congress to act favorably on bills H.R. 
1937 and S. 3088 which will do much to rectify the situation and yet not hamper 
valuable medical research. 
We are in complete agreement with the following statement made by Dr. 
Albert Schweitzer : “Those who experiment upon animals by surgery and 
drugs * * * should never quiet their consciences with the conviction that their 
cruel action may, in general, have a worthy purpose. In every single instance, 
they must consider whether it is really necessary to demand of an animal this 
sacrifice for man, and they must take anxious care that the pain be mitigated 
as far as possible * * 
Statement of Dr. Dorothy D. Hammond 
As a college teacher of genetics to zoology and physiology majors for many 
years, and with long experience as counselor to science students in a college 
guidance bureau, I am eager to express strong support for the bills H.R. 1937 
and S. 3088. 
Possession of advanced academic degrees unfortunately in no way insures 
humaneness of outlook. I have observed carelessness, callousness, and even 
punitiveness in the treatment of animals by some scientists. I have known 
scientists who gave lip service to the desirability of good care for experimental 
animals but who, in practice, treated the animal as if it were an insentient 
piece of laboratory apparatus. 
Investigators who treat experimental animals with consideration often hesi- 
tate to criticize, openly, less humane colleagues, although distaste may be 
expressed privately. I recently heard a biologist contrast the long lifespan of 
large-veined rabbits used as a daily source of blood in his laboratory with the 
short lifespan of small-veined rabbits used as a blood source in some other 
laboratories. He characterized what is done to the latter as “slow butchery.” 
I know from experience that when there is someone who is alert to poor care 
or mistreatment of laboratory animals and who is willing to voice criticism 
and accept the anger that such criticism often evokes, the treatment of animals 
immediately improves. 
I am particularly interested in the treatment of animals used in college 
biology laboratories. With the rising number of classes using live animals 
and with the increasing encouragement of undergraduate research projects on 
living animals, it is tremendously important that young people understand as 
early and as definitely as possible that the animal has a right to good care 
and humane treatment. 
I think it indefensible that animals are now permitted to live after under- 
graduate students have performed operations upon them. Any operations on 
living vertebrate animals are best restricted, as required in Great Britain, 
to the graduate level. There is, however, a vast difference between permitting 
