Chapter 13 
Federal Regulation of Animal Use 
This chapter describes Federal law, as enacted 
and currently interpreted, that directly governs 
and regulates the acquisition and use of laboratory 
animals for research and testing. Federal laws and 
regulations governing the purchase, sale, handling, 
or transportation in commerce of animals for ex- 
hibition, domestic, or other purposes unrelated 
to research, testing, and education are not exam- 
ined . Federal laws and regulations that have been 
interpreted to require testing with certain meth- 
odologies or protocols are considered in chapter 
7, and appendix B describes regulations promul- 
gated and guidelines issued by specific Federal 
agencies, pursuant to statutory authority, to reg- 
ulate laboratory -animal use in required or spon- 
sored research and testing. 
FEDERAL LAWS AND REGULATIONS 
Long before passage of the Laboratory Animal 
Welfare Act (Public Law 89-544) in 1966, Con- 
gress-following a trend against cruelty to animals 
that had manifested itself in some States through- 
out the 19th century— in 1873 passed the first 
Twenty -Eight Hour Law (Act of Mar. 3, 1873). Ac- 
tion was taken by the national legislature under 
its powers to regulate interstate commerce because 
of the toll exacted in animal flesh, literally, by in- 
humane conditions of rail transport for meat -pro- 
ducing livestock. The law barred confinement of 
livestock in rail cars for longer than 28 hours. 
Continuing expressions of concern led to repeal 
of the original act and the passage in 1906 of the 
Twenty-Eight Hour Law still in effect today (45 
U.S.C. 71-74). (In the intervening three decades, 
22 States passed general anticruelty statutes (13).) 
Since enactment of the 1906 act preceded the rise 
of interstate motor traffic, its provisions regulat- 
ing length of confinement and conditions of treat- 
ment during shipment do not apply to trucks (39). 
Similar concerns about needless suffering under- 
gone by food-producing animals led Congress to 
pass the Humane Slaughter Act (Public Law 85- 
765) in 1958, permitting slaughter only by “hu- 
mane” means. 
After 1966, concerns about animals led to Fed- 
eral protection of: 
• horses, with the passage in 1970 of the Horse 
Protection Act (Public Law 91-929), against an 
unaesthetic physical practice on animals to 
produce a physical appearance aesthetically 
appealing to humans (“soring” the ankles to 
produce a high-stepping gait); 
• marine mammals as a class (whales, por- 
poises, seals, and polar bears, for the most 
part), with the passage in 1972 of the Marine 
Mammal Protection Act (Public Law 92-522) 
against extinction or depletion from indiscrim- 
inate taking, including hunting, harassment, 
capture, and killing (permitted takings, includ- 
ing for subsistence and research purposes, 
must be accomplished humanely, with "the 
least degree of pain and suffering practicable 
to the animal”); and 
• endangered and threatened species, with 
the passage in 1973 of the Endangered Spe- 
cies Act (Public Law 93-205), making it unlaw- 
ful to buy, sell, or transport in interstate or 
foreign commerce any species found to be en- 
dangered and closely regulating commerce in 
any species threatened with extinction. 
Thus, Congress has acted on several occasions 
over the past century to protect animals, both as 
individuals and as species (i.e., marine mammals 
and endangered species). The degree of commit- 
ment to protection of animals through proscrip- 
tion, regulation, and enforcement varied, with 
Congress exhibiting a tendency toward stricter 
controls beginning in the 1970s. Similarly, recent 
exercising of the constitutional authority of the 
Federal Government over interstate commerce 
seems to be based on interests broader than the 
welfare or treatment of individual animals — e.g., 
saving a species from extinction. 
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