10 • Alternatives to Animal Use in Research, Testing, and Education 
alternatives that involve reduction or refinement, 
but it may be harder to replace whole-animal test- 
ing totally with in vitro methods. 
Reductions in the number of animals used can 
be brought about by using no more animals than 
necessary to accomplish the purpose of the test, 
by combining tests in such a way that fewer ani- 
mals are needed, and by retrieving information 
that allows any unintentional duplication of earlier 
work to be avoided (see chs. 8 and 10). Refinements 
include increased use of anesthetics and analgesics 
to ameliorate pain and tranquilizers to relieve dis- 
tress. Replacements may involve human cell cul- 
tures obtained from cadavers or in surgery, animal 
cell cultures, invertebrates, or micro-organisms. 
For example, the use of an invertebrate in place 
of a vertebrate, as in the case of substituting horse- 
shoe crabs for rabbits in testing drugs for their 
production of fever as a side effect, is increasingly 
accepted as a replacement. 
The most promising in vitro methods are based 
on an understanding of whole -organ or organism 
responses that can be related to events at the cel- 
lular or subcellular level. Cells manifest a variety 
of reactions to toxins, including death, changes 
in permeability or metabolic activity, and damage 
to genetic material. 
ALTERNATIVES IN EDUCATION 
Although far fewer animals are used in edu- 
cation than in either research or testing, ani- 
mal use in the classroom plays an important 
role in shaping societal attitudes toward this 
subject. As educational goals vary from level to 
level, so does the use of animals and therefore the 
potential for alternatives (see ch. 9). 
In elementary schools, live animals are gener- 
ally present solely for observation and to acquaint 
students with the care and handling of different 
species . Although the guidelines set by many school 
boards and science teachers’ associations limit the 
use of living vertebrates to procedures that nei- 
ther cause pain or distress nor interfere with the 
animals’ health, these guidelines are not observed 
in all secondary schools. Science fairs are an addi- 
tional avenue for students to pursue original re- 
search. The Westinghouse Science Fair prohibits 
the invasive use of live vertebrates, whereas the 
International Science and Engineering Fair has no 
such prohibition. 
In the college classroom and teaching laboratory, 
alternatives are being developed and implemented 
because they sometimes offer learning advantages, 
are cheaper than animal methods, and satisfy ani- 
mal welfare concerns. As a student advances, ani- 
mal use at the postsecondary level becomes in- 
creasingly tied to research and skill acquisition. 
As graduate education merges with laboratory re- 
search and training, animal use becomes largely 
Finalist, 1985 Westinghouse Science Talent Search 
Photo credit: Gary B. Ellis 
Louis C. Paul, age 18, Baldwin Senior High School, 
Baldwin, NY, with his research project, “Effect of 
Temperature on Facet Number in the Bar-Eyed Mutant 
of Drosophila melanogaster. ” 
a function of the questions under investigation. 
In disciplines such as surgical training in the health 
professions, some measure of animal use can be 
helpful but is not universally viewed as essential. 
Many alternative methods in education are 
already accepted practice (see ch. 9). Replace- 
ments include computer simulations of physiolog- 
ical phenomena and pharmacologic reactions, cell 
culture studies, human and animal cadavers, and 
audiovisual materials. Clinical observation and in- 
struction can also replace the use of animals in 
some laboratory exercises in medical and veteri- 
