Ch. 3— Patterns of Animal Use • 47 
Primate Involved in Behavioral Research 
Photo credit: David Hathcox ©, 1985 
farm animals intended for use as food or fiber. 
Under this definition, dead frogs used in biology 
classes or animals killed prior to usage are not in- 
cluded. Rats, mice, and birds were specifically ex- 
cluded from the act’s coverage by regulations pro- 
mulgated in 1977 by the Secretary of Agriculture 
(9 C.F.R. l.l(n); 42 FR 31022); reporting the use 
of these animals is voluntary. 
The regulations that APHIS enforces require that 
each research facility fill out an Annual Report of 
Research Facility (see fig. 3-1) by December 1 on 
the preceding Federal fiscal year (October 1 - Sep- 
tember 30). Elementary and secondary schools are 
exempt, as are facilities using only exempt species 
(rats, mice, or birds). In addition, any facility that 
does its own in-house breeding and does not re- 
ceive Federal funds does not have to file a report. 
Although Federal research facilities are not re- 
quired to register with APHIS, many of them do 
fill out the annual reporting forms. Each year, 
APHIS reports to Congress on the data collected 
from these forms in its Animal Welfare Enforce- 
ment Report. 
Since 1982, two lines on the Annual Report of 
Research Facility have listed rats and mice under 
column A, “Animals Covered by the Act” (which 
is therefore no longer an accurate heading). Al- 
though not legally required, many respondents 
who used mandated species filled in the number 
of rats and mice anyway, either not realizing that 
reporting on these species is voluntary or elect- 
ing to report their use. Thus, for many institutions 
a usage figure for rats and mice is given. In other 
cases, though, facilities reporting on mandated spe- 
cies omitted data on rats and mice. 
Table 3-1 details the total reported animal use 
by research facilities within the Federal Govern- 
ment broken down by departments, major divi- 
sions, and agencies for fiscal year 1983. The An- 
nual Report of Research Facility requires not only 
that total animals used be reported, but that the 
animals used be categorized as being used in re- 
search, experiments, or tests: 1) involving no pain 
or distress; 2) where appropriate anesthetic, anal- 
gesic, or tranquilizer drugs were administered to 
avoid pain or distress; or 3) involving pain or dis- 
tress without administration of appropriate anes- 
thetic, analgesic, or tranquilizer drugs (see fig. 3-1). 
Several qualifications are necessary on the num- 
bers reported in table 3-1, which are based on the 
annual reports obtained from APHIS: 
• The 131 research reports include only intra- 
mural Federal research done at Federal fa- 
cilities. 
• The 131 facilities are not all the Federal facil- 
ities that might have used animals in 1983; at 
least 25 facilities did not file a report for that 
year. 
• The numbers obtained were tabulated from 
each report. The reports were checked and 
corrected for improper coding of information 
and inaccurate addition. In many cases, these 
changes reflected substantial differences in 
the number of animals used for specific insti- 
tutions. 
• The numbers for mice and rats are included 
from any institution that reported them volun- 
tarily. Several facilities, however, specifically 
mentioned that they were not required to sub- 
mit these data and did not do so. 
In addition to these general limitations on over- 
all numbers, some specific qualifications for indi- 
vidual departments and agencies are also war- 
ranted: 
• For FDA, table 3-1 does not include its primary 
research facility, the National Center for Tox- 
icological Research (NCTR), since no report 
