14. RM Animal Research

Question 1

What is the Home Office’s role in animal research?

Answer 1

-The Home Office is part of the government and provides guidance on how to carry out scientific research and testing using animals, and how to apply for licenses.
-The Home Office’s role is to regulate and ensure that the guidelines stipulated in the Animal Scientific Procedures Act (1986) are adhered to.

Question 2

What are the 3 licenses required by the Animal Scientific Procedures Act 1986 before testing on animals?

Answer 2

1. Personal licence for each person carrying out procedures on animals.
2. Project licence for the programme of work.
3. Establishment licence for the place at which the work is carried out.

Question 3

Describe a personal licence.

Answer 3

No personal licence shall be granted to a person under the age of 18.

The Secretary of State shall not grant a personal licence to a person unless he is satisfied that the person:
-Has appropriate education and training for the purpose of applying the regulated procedures that the licence would qualify the person to apply.
-Is competent to apply those procedures in accordance with the conditions which are to be included in the licence and to handle and take care of laboratory animals.

A personal licence shall continue in force until revoked but the Secretary of State shall review each personal licence granted at intervals not exceeding 5 years.

Question 4

Describe a project licence.

Answer 4

An application for a project licence must:
-Specify the programme of work the applicant wishes to be specified in the project licence.
-Specify the regulated procedures, the descriptions of animal and the place or places the applicant wishes to be specified in the project licence.
-Be accompanied by a project summary.

Question 5

Describe an establishment licence.

Answer 5

-All protected animals must at all times be provided with adequate care and accommodation appropriate to their type or species.
-House, freedom of movement, food and water appropriate for the health and well being of each protected animal shall be provided.
-Any restrictions on the extent to which such an animal can satisfy its physiological and ethological needs shall be kept to an absolute minimum.
-A veterinary surgeon or other suitably qualified person must provide advice on their health and welfare.

Question 6

According to the Animal Scientific Procedures Act 1986, there are three R’s for the ethical principles for animal research, what are they?

Answer 6

1. Replace
2. Reduce
3. Refine

Question 7

Define one of the 3 R’s, replace.

Answer 7

Replace the use of animals with different techniques; virtual simulations on computers or studying videos of past research are recommended.

Question 8

Define one of the 3 R’s, reduce.

Answer 8

Reduce the number of animals used to a minimum; in a well designed study, the maximum data can be extracted from the minimal number of animals.

Question 9

Define one of the 3 R’s, refine.

Answer 9

Refine the way experiments are carried out, to make sure animals suffer as little as possible. This includes better housing and improvements which minimise pain and suffering.

Question 10

Describe the feature of the BPS ethical guidelines for psychologists working with animals- legal requirements.

Answer 10

Research must not break the law regarding endangered and protected species. This particularly restricts research involving great apes.

Question 11

Describe the feature of the BPS ethical guidelines for psychologists working with animals- replacement.

Answer 11

Where possible, live animals should be replaced with research alternatives, like videos and computer simulations. Animals should only be used as a last resort.

Question 12

Describe the feature of the BPS ethical guidelines for psychologists working with animals- choice of species.

Answer 12

Species bred in captivity are ethically preferable to creatures taken from the wild; research should be minimised if it involves highly sentient (thinking, feeling), animalsl ike the great apes.

Question 13

Describe the feature of the BPS ethical guidelines for psychologists working with animals- reduction.

Answer 13

The number of animals used in the study should be minimised as much as possible; this involves carefully designed experiments and a good use of statistics to get the maximum amount of data from the smallest number of animals.

Question 14

Describe the feature of the BPS ethical guidelines for psychologists working with animals- animal care.

Answer 14

When not being studied, animals must be housed, fed and watered in a suitable way as well as being given space and companionship appropriate to their species.

Question 15

Describe the feature of the BPS ethical guidelines for psychologists working with animals- disposal.

Answer 15

When the research is over, animals should be disposed of humanely; ideally they should be kept alive for breeding or as pets.

Question 16

Describe the feature of the BPS ethical guidelines for psychologists working with animals- procedures.

Answer 16

Animals must be treated humanely during research.

Question 17

What are the 3 areas that BPS gives special consideration to in terms of procedure?

Answer 17

1. Caging
2. Deprivation
3. Pain

Question 18

What are the BPS guidelines surrounding caging when psychologists are working with animals.

Answer 18

Distress should be minimised during caging; social species need companionship and animals unused to other animals may be distressed if caged with them.

Question 19

What are the BPS guidelines surrounding deprivation when psychologists are working with animals.

Answer 19

Some food deprivation is allowable (and may be normal and healthy for animals) but distress should be minimised.

Question 20

What are the BPS guidelines surrounding pain when psychologists are working with animals.

Answer 20

Anaesthetics should be used to minimise pain; animals should be given medical treatment after research, humane killing must be considered if suffering cannot be reduced.

Question 21

Describe the cost-benefit model that the BPS use of animal guidelines are based on.

Answer 21

-Research which breaks some guidelines might sometimes be allowable if the benefits seem to outweigh the costs in terms of animal suffering.
-Research is best if cost is low and benefit is high.

Question 22

Describe the Bateson decision-making Cube for ethical decisions.

Answer 22

Patrick Bateson has suggested a convenient way of weighing up ethical decisions about animals in research- ‘the decision cube’.

There are 3 sides to the cube:
1. The degree of animal suffering- ethical research minimises this.
2. The benefits of the findings- ethical research will have clear benefits.
3. The quality of the research- ethical research will be highly valid and reliable.

Ideally the cube should be as hollow as possible. Ethical research will be highly beneficial, high quality research with minimal suffering to the animals; on the other hand, painful, low quality research without clear benefits must be avoided.

Question 23

Define specieism.

Answer 23

-If animals are so similar to humans why should they not be afforded the same rights.
-Singer calls this ‘specie-ism’ and it is a type of discrimination, just like racism or sexism.

For example:
-Rats have 21 pairs of chromosomes
-Mice have 20 pairs of chromosomes ad share 90% of their genes with humans.
-Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes

Question 24

What are the strengths of using animals in research?

For example:
-Pavlov
-Mowrer
-Cook and Mineka

-Beeman
-Egger and Flynn
-Trainor

Answer 24

-Similar to humans (genes, brain).
-Don’t need consent.
-Easier to collect sample as animals that have a short gestation period can be bred to see what effects show up in their descendants.
-Generalisability.
-Easier to control and manipulate as can be kept in a controlled environment and observed for long periods.

Question 25

What are the weaknesses of using animals in research?

Answer 25

-Animal behaviours are different to humans, human behaviour is more controlled by higher cognitive thinking.
-Animal experimentation may be unethical and in many cases the benefits do not outweigh the harm.