C/ 7 . 15— Institutional and Self-Regulation of Animal Use • 347 
and issued in 1985 as the Guidelines for Ethical 
Conduct in the Care and Use of Animals (6). 
The most comprehensive document of its type, 
the APA Guidelines is a detailed statement cover- 
ing all aspects of animal care and use— personnel, 
facilities, acquisition of animals, care and housing, 
experimental design and procedures, field re- 
search, educational use of animals, and disposi- 
tion and disposal of animals. The importance of 
the use of sound ethical judgment is reiterated 
throughout, and the new guidelines are to be 
signed by a supervisor and an administrative offi- 
cial and posted wherever animals are maintained 
or used. 
The APA statement is distinguished by both the 
number and diversity of its requirements. In addi- 
tion to supporting the principles previously men- 
tioned, it states that "considerations limited to the 
time, convenience, or expense of a procedure do 
not justify violations of any of the principles ." When 
violations are not resolved at the local level, they 
"should be referred to the APA Committee on 
Ethics, which is empowered to impose sanctions." 
The possible nature of such sanctions remains 
undefined. 
The APA Guidelines state: "Psychologists should 
ensure that all individuals who use animals under 
their supervision receive explicit instruction in ex- 
perimental methods and in the care, maintenance, 
and handling of the species being studied." All re- 
search should be justifiable, with "a reasonable 
expectation" that the research will: 
• increase knowledge of the processes under- 
lying the evolution, development, control, or 
biological significance of behavior; 
• increase understanding of the species under 
study in the research; or 
• provide results that benefit the health or wel- 
fare of humans or other animals. 
These contributions "should be of sufficient po- 
tential significance as to outweigh any harm or 
distress to the animals used.” Moreover, "when 
appropriate, animals intended for use in the lab- 
oratory should be bred for that purpose.” 
The APA stands virtually alone among scientific 
societies in offering guidance in the educational 
use of animals: 
When animals are used solely for educational 
rather than research purposes, the consideration 
of possible benefits accruing from their use vs. 
the cost in terms of animal distress should take 
into account the fact that some procedures which 
can be justified for research purposes cannot be 
justified for educational purposes. 
The Guidelines further urge that alternatives to 
the use of animals be investigated and that alter- 
natives to euthanasia, such as animal sharing and 
return of wild-trapped animals in the field, be con- 
sidered. Following euthanasia, "no animal shall be 
discarded until its death is verified. "Investigators 
are invited to seek assistance from the APA on rele- 
vant issues, and a list of references on the ethics 
of animal research is mentioned as available. The 
association supports the formation of institutional 
animal care and use committees (including repre- 
sentatives from the local community) to assist in 
the resolution of questions within individual insti- 
tutions, but it recognizes that “laws and regulations 
notwithstanding, an animal’s immediate protection 
depends upon the scientist's own conscience." 
American Physiological Society 
The minutes of the 1913 meeting of the Council 
of the American Physiological Society (APS) con- 
tain the first written statement by a U .S . scientific 
society in support of the prevention of cruelty to 
research animals. Although it did not receive much 
attention at that time, the statement later led to 
the development of the NIH Guide (33). The present 
APS policy statement, revised in 1980 as Guiding 
Principles in the Care and Use of Animals (30), is 
sent to each member to be signed and posted. 
In addition to the principles they have in com- 
mon with other societies, the APS Guiding Princi- 
ples require that "animal experiments are to be 
undertaken only for the purpose of advancing 
knowledge” and that "consideration should be 
given to the appropriateness of experimental pro- 
cedures.” 
"Only animals that are lawfully acquired shall 
be used,” and, when muscle relaxants or paralytics 
are employed, "they should not be used alone for 
surgical restraint, [but] in conjunction with drugs 
known to produce adequate analgesia.” In 1984, 
this provision concerning relaxants and paralvtics 
