IACUC protocols regulate the care and treatment of animals in laboratory experimentation.
Animal rights is a hot-button issue in America, with opposing sides rarely trying to find common ground on the issue. Every institution that experiments on vertebrates for educational and research purposes is bound by rules regarding the care and keep of animals, but many animal rights activists --- and even a few researchers --- believe the rules are inadequate and often ignored.
IACUC Protocols
Every institution that uses live vertebrates in projects supported by the Public Health Services (PHS) has an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) that issues rules regarding the treatment and care of these animals. The rules, which are in accordance with PHS Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals, are called IACUC protocols. All Public Health Service-supported projects being conducted at these institutions must be approved by its IACUC before funding for these projects can begin.
Fish Protocols
Zoologists Russell J. Borski and Ronald G. Hodson complain of ambiguity, lack of clarity and inadequacy of Animal Welfare Act (AWA) and PHS guidelines regarding the institutional treatment and care of fish. These guidelines, which have been largely derived from the use and care of mammalian species, they claim, are often inadequate for fish research and education, and create a challenge for IACUCs and the establishment of effective protocols for institutions that use fish.
How Researchers See it
The battle between animal researchers and animal rights organizations, like the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), has been raging since the anti-vivisection movement of the late 1800s and promises no truce in the near future. The University of Alaska Center for Research Services characterizes the animal rights movement as misguided, claiming that the movement's core belief maintains that experimenting on animals is unnecessary because science has already learned everything it's going to learn by such experimentation. The Center derisively encourages visitors to its website to go to animal rights organization websites "for entertainment" value.
PETA
Unsurprisingly, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the largest animal rights organization in the world, views the issue differently. Though rules committees such as the IACUC, are supposed to prevent unnecessary experiments, says PETA, these committees are comprised of "animal experimenters" with vested interests in the continuation of such experimentation who unquestioningly "rubber stamp" animal experiments. Typically, says PETA, these committees only have one member representing community and animal interests.
Rats, Mice and Birds
An area of controversy regarding IACUC protocols --- or rather, lack of protocols --- is experimentation on rats, mice and birds. A 2002 amendment to the AWA, from which IACUCs derive guidance, explicitly excludes these animals from protection. According to PETA, the amendment was sponsored by then-Senator Jesse Helms on behalf of large tobacco companies, known to be major experimenters on animals. Rats, mice and birds constitute 95 percent of the animals used in laboratory experiments, and PETA claims the amendment subjects these animals to "excruciating procedures and conditions."
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