46 • Alternatives to Animal Use in Research, Testing, and Education 
Consumer Product Safety Commission 
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) 
both relies on data provided by manufacturers and 
conducts its own testing to determine the toxic 
potential of consumer products. Animals are used 
by CPSC's Directorate for Health Sciences in de- 
terminations of substances’ acute oral toxicity, 
their potential for skin and eye irritation, and their 
combustion toxicity (16). 
Environmental Protection Agency 
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) per- 
forms research involving animals under the stat- 
utory and regulatory authority of the Toxic Sub- 
stances Control Act and the Federal Insecticide, 
Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. The general pur- 
pose of this research fits into one of three catego- 
ries: methods development to assess potential haz- 
ards to the environment, dose-response data for 
risk assessment, or low-dose to high-dose data for 
risk assessment. EPA has two major research fa- 
cilities, one in Cincinnati, OH, and the other in Re- 
search Triangle Park, NC. In addition to the intra- 
mural research done in these facilities, EPA does 
contract extramural research. The amount done 
outside the agency varies from year to year and 
depends on the program, but it usually does not 
exceed 40 percent of total research (48). 
National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration 
The National Aeronautics and Space Adminis- 
tration (NASA) has three facilities that maintain 
or conduct research with animals, although ap- 
proximately 65 percent of NASA’s Life Sciences 
research is conducted extramurally. About 12 per- 
cent of the life sciences budget was used to fund 
animal research in fiscal year 1984 (37). 
The general purpose of NASA's research is to 
acquire knowledge that can be used to protect and 
ensure the health of American astronauts, both 
during their missions in space and after their re- 
turn to Earth. 
National Science Foundation 
The National Science Foundation awards grants 
for scientific research involving animals but per- 
forms no intramural research. 
Veterans’ Administration 
The Veterans' Administration (VA) has 174 fa- 
cilities, 91 of which have the ability and authori- 
zation to do animal research. The VA’s mandate 
to do research that may involve animals comes 
from part of the agency’s defined mission to un- 
derstand health maladies better, with a special em- 
phasis on those that affect veterans. The VA uses 
animals in its research and development divisions 
and its education programs, which are located in 
many of its local facilities . All research funded by 
the VA is done intramurally, and some of the re- 
search done by the VA is funded by other agen- 
cies, such as NIH (29). 
Research and development within the VA has 
three elements: the Medical Research Program, 
Rehabilitative R&D, and Health Services R&D. The 
Medical Research Program includes research basic 
to disease and deformities, while Rehabilitative 
R&D includes studies on artificial appliances or 
substances for use in restoring structure or func- 
tion of parts of the human body. Finally, Health 
Services R&D includes research toward improve- 
ment, replacement, or discontinuance of health 
care delivery systems (32). Thus, the VA's man- 
date for research and development is extremely 
broad and holds the potential to use animals in 
many programs. 
Patterns of Federal Animal Use 
APHIS is the agency within the U.S. Department 
of Agriculture responsible for administering and 
enforcing the Animal Welfare Act of 1966 (Public 
Law 89-544) and its amendments (see ch. 13). The 
act defines research facility as any individual, in- 
stitution, organization, or postsecondary school 
that uses or intends to use live animals in research, 
tests, or experiments and that purchases or trans- 
ports live animals in commerce or that receives 
Federal funds for research, tests, or experiments. 
It defines "animal’’ to include "any live or dead dog, 
cat, monkey (nonhuman primate mammal), guinea 
pig, hamster, rabbit, or such other warm-blooded 
animal, as the Secretary [of the Department of Agri- 
culture] may determine is being used, or is intended 
for use, for research, testing, experimentation, or 
exhibition purposes , or as a pet . ” The act excludes 
horses not used for research purposes and other 
