animal ethics

Question 1

Pain

Answer 1

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 2

Deprivation:

Answer 2

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

Question 3

Caging

Answer 3

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

Question 4

Disposal

Answer 4

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

Question 5

Reduction:

Answer 5

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

Question 6

Choice of Species:

Answer 6

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

Question 7

Replacement

Answer 7

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 8

Legal Requirements

Answer 8

Research must not break the law regarding endangered and protected species. This particularly restricts research involving great apes (chimpanzees, gorillas, orang-utans).

Question 9

Animal Care:

Answer 9

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