Regarding the article "New Animal Care Guide Leaves Details To Scientists' Discretion" (R. Finn, The Scientist, July 22, 1996, page 1): Although it was mentioned that scientists who are experts in animal care agree that the new guidelines are a real improvement over the old ones, there needs to be more emphasis on the following positive aspects of performance-based approaches:
- Animal welfare is an art, as Thomas Wolfle said in the article, and the art requires education and training.
- Scientists who are very familiar with experimental animals understand their needs much better than a person or agency that prescribes and attempts to regulate without intimate, long-term experience.
- Biologists, for the most part, have a reverence for life that extends over the range from bacteria, plants, and invertebrates to higher mammals. This guarantees that the scientist will use the great care in treatment.
- Scientists also have other reasons...
Interested in reading more?
Become a Member of
Receive full access to digital editions of The Scientist, as well as TS Digest, feature stories, more than 35 years of archives, and much more!
