318 HUMANE TREATMENT OF ANIMALS USED IN RESEARCH 
antibiotics, or the great armamentarium of modem synthetic chemotherapeutic 
medicaments that bring relief from pain and recovery from a host of diseases 
that formerly destroyed human lives. Hogs would continue to perish in epi- 
demics of hog cholera. Cattle would still be destroyed by the millions because 
of tuberculosis. Dogs would peril their own lives and those of all other animals 
by transmitting rabies, distemper, and other plagues.” 
To insure the success of hundreds of millions of dollars worth of life-pro- 
longing research, a typical modern animal research laboratory at the University 
of Illinois accords some 10,000 animals almost unequaled care. 
In a new $2,250,000 medical research laboratory at the University of Illinois 
Chicago Professional Colleges on Chicago’s near West Side, thousands of mice 
and rats, a smaller number of dogs, rabbits, cats, chickens, pigeons, hamsters, 
guinea pigs, and usually a few rarer species never had it so good on the farm, 
in a zoo, or even in the most avid pet-fancier’s home. 
A 320-ton air-conditioning unit for the university’s animal quarters supplies 
sterilized air at controlled temperature and humidity. No building for human 
habitation has a more elaborate system and almost none of even the newest 
hospitals provide such comfort for human patients. 
Even well animals get treatment accorded to few sick humans — including 
sterilized food containers, sterilized rooms, stainless steel cages, and their own 
nurse and veterinarian. Even an indoor loading platform in the windowless 
building keeps animals from getting chilled en route to their new quarters. 
This animal “club” is so exclusive that new arrivals aren’t even allowed to 
mingle with the regular “guests” till after a month’s quarantine assures that 
they are free of diseases brought in from the outside. 
While the University of Illinois facility is one of the newest and finest among 
the Nation’s medical schools and research institutes it is by no means unusual. 
A new animal house being constructed for similar purposes at the University of 
Chicago, for example, will cost approximately three times, per unit of space, 
what it costs to build a new office building, or seven times the cost of the same 
space in a fine new home. 
The elaborate care that goes into the keeping of these animals extends as well 
into the experiments in which they are used. Contrary to popular miscon- 
ception, fully 90 percent of all laboratory animals in the United States never 
feel the sting of an anesthetic needle. The reason : they are used principally in 
feeding, pill dosage, vitamin evaluation, and other such research which does not 
require surgical procedures. As just one example, the lifesaving “iron lung” 
was perfected on 24 cats who did nothing but sleep all day. The most commonly 
used animal is the mouse, which is used extensively in screening drugs for 
effectiveness and undesirable side effects before they are administered to the 
first human patient. 
Animals used in the development of surgical procedures — such as the dogs 
which allowed doctors to perfect the lifesaving “blue baby” heart operation — 
are fully anesthetized, of course. It would be foolishly impractical not to du- 
plicate the procedures used in human surgery, for the purpose is to apply the 
results to human surgery. 
“We go to such lengths to care for our animal subjects, certainly for humani- 
tarian reasons,” says Dr. William O. Dolowy, administrator of the University 
of Illinois Medical Research Laboratory, “but also for good practical scientific 
reasons. The success of our work depends upon preventing extraneous factors 
from misleading our research. It is actually more economical to have excellent 
laboratory animal care because it increases the efficiency and productivity of 
our search for new knowledge with which to save lives.” 
Medical investigators who use animals are engaged in a continuing search for 
better techniques for handling their laboratory animals. 
Eleven years ago directors of animal care at a number of medical institutions 
formed the Animal Care Panel in order to facilitate exchange of information on 
the best methods of laboratory animal husbandry. Most persons charged with 
laboratory animal care in the United States now belong to the ACP. They 
attend its large 3-day annual meetings and comb the quarterly “Animal Care 
Panel Proceedings” to find ideas that will help them bring the care of their 
precious charges even nearer perfection. 
The American Veterinary Medical Association has established a specialty 
board for veterinarians who qualify as experts in laboratory animal care. This 
small and select group is known as the American Board of Laboratory Animal 
Medicine. 
