208 • Alternatives to Animal Use in Research, Testing, and Education 
vate veterinary practices, biological laboratories, 
animal research, food inspection, and other areas 
requiring expertise in both science and animal care 
and use. 
Graduates of these programs are generally re- 
ferred to as animal technicians. The terminology 
may vary slightly among different schools or with 
individual State laws and regulations. Many em- 
ployees of animal care and research and testing 
facilities have received training on the job, in sec- 
ondary schools, or at less than the 2-year college 
level. These individuals are commonly referred 
to as animal attendants, animal caretakers, or ani- 
mal health assistants. Two other types of animal- 
support personnel are laboratory -animal techni- 
cians (whose training has been oriented primarily 
toward laboratory animals) and animal technolo- 
gists (who have had training in a 4-year bacca- 
laureate degree program). 
Most accredited animal technician programs 
cover 2 academic years of college-level study and 
lead to an Associate in Applied Science degree or 
its equivalent. The core curriculum usually in- 
cludes animal husbandry, animal care and man- 
agement, animal diseases and nursing, anesthetic 
monitoring and nursing, ethics and jurisprudence, 
veterinary anatomy and physiology, medical ter- 
minology, animal nutrition and feeding, necropsy 
techniques, radiography, veterinary urinalysis, 
veterinary parasitology, and animal microbiology 
and sanitation (1). 
Many States require animal technicians to be reg- 
istered or certified. The Laboratory Animal Tech- 
nician Certification Board sponsored by the Amer- 
ican Association of Laboratory Animal Science 
provides examinations and registry for technicians 
who are eligible and employed in laboratory -animal 
facilities. 
In addition to increasing interest in laboratory- 
animal technician degree programs, a number of 
graduating veterinary students have begun to seek 
additional training and certification in laboratory- 
animal medicine. To date, about 700 full-time veter- 
inarians are certified in this field nationwide (see 
ch. 15). As more laboratory -animal technicians are 
trained and as the number of veterinarians spe- 
cializing in laboratory -animal medicine increases, ; 
the resulting base of skills and knowledge will likely 
improve animal care in the laboratory. 
THE ALTERNATIVES 
Finding alternatives to the use of animals in edu- 
cation is a complex challenge. Alternatives must 
satisfy the demands of science education, teach- 
ing both the scientific method and the fundamen- 
tal skills and techniques necessary to carry out 
scientific investigation. Yet science education does 
more— as it trains aspiring students, it establishes 
a framework of values and molds attitudes that 
will long influence their work. Therefore, exposure 
to alternatives, particularly the concepts under- 
lying animal use and alternative methods, strongly 
influences the paths investigators choose to fol- 
low in the future. Viewed from this perspective, 
the acceptance (or rejection) of a specific alterna- 
tive method in education assumes an importance 
that is, in fact, secondary to the impact it may have 
on the development of a student’s overall attitude 
toward animal use in research, testing, or edu- 
cation. 
Implementing alternative technologies and meth- 
ods in education does not necessarily mean banish- 
ing animals from the classroom or laboratory. As 
in research (see ch. 6) and testing (see ch. 8), cer- 
tain techniques are available that allow for the con- 
tinued, but modified, use of animals, the use of 
living systems, the use of nonliving systems, and 
the use of computers. In education, computer simu- 
lation stands as a particularly promising alter- 
native. 
Continued , But Modified 
Use of Animals in Education 
Demonstrations 
In contrast to animal experimentation in re- 
search and testing, animal use in the educational 
laboratory is unlikely to result in novel findings. 
