ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS

• UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE, PAIN AND SUFFERING
• Marilyn Keaney, DVM, PhD, LLB, LLM
• University Veterinarian and Director,
• Animal Care, Veterinary Services and Ethics

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE
PAIN SUFFERING

• The human-animal association is an ancient one
• food, fibre, conveyance, protection,
  companionship, aesthetic pleasure.
• Animals are chronicled in great religious works
  and in mythologies
• The human-animal relation is characterized by
  celebration, care, solicitousness and love, but
  also by
• mistreatment, cruelty, neglect and/or
  indifference.

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• Animals may be mistreated because of
• ignorance and neglect
• anger and frustration
• economics (corner cutting to secure profit
  margins) or other pressures (research
  productivity)
• psychopathology Histories of animal abuse form
  part of the larger pattern of human human abuse,
  e.g. spousal and child abuse.
• Animal abuse may also herald other socio-pathic
  behaviours

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE
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• Egregious conduct towards animals may give rise
  to
• public opprobrium, i.e. moral outrage, in turn
  leading to public action in the form of
• prosecution for animal cruelty under humane
  statutes and/or Canadas Criminal Code.
• It is important to distinguish between
  individual acts of cruelty and systemic
  cruelty.
• Systemic cruelty is conduct which is legitimized
  by its social institutionalization
• e.g. agricultural practices such as intensive
  livestock rearing where livestock are deprived of
  opportunity to engage in conduct particular to
  their nature (e.g. nesting)
• e.g. historical customary practices of
  experimental medicine and science

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• What is the nature of the relationship between
  animals and humans such that animal harm can
  compromise human moral welfare?
• In a Preface to a Recommended Code of Practice
  for the Care and Handling of Horses in PMU
  Operations (1990 Manitoba Agriculture, at 1) the
  Minister of Agriculture stated
• A feature and a measure of the moral conduct
  of a progressive society is the extent to which
  it is concerned with the welfare of animals with
  which it shares the earth.
• This echoes the words of Mohandis Gandhi
• The greatness of a nation and its moral progress
  can be judged by the way its animals are
  treated.3
• Gandhi was a follower of Henry Salt who was the
  first person to articulate the notion of the
  liberation of animals as well as the
  liberation of downtrodden humans in the late
  nineteenth century.
• _____
• 3 http//www.ivu.org/history/gandhi/experiment
  (date accessed 7 May 2001)

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE
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• Cruel indifferent to or gratified by anothers
  suffering causing pain or suffering.1
• Aims and objects of laws especially of the
  Criminal Law
• maintenance of a just and peaceful society
  through
• the prohibition of behaviour that causes or
  threatens
• the moral welfare of individuals or
  society-at-large1
• There is a convertibility between secular
  morality and the law.
• _________
• 1 Hakings, J., The Oxford Reference Dictionary
  (Oxford Oxford University Printing House, 1986)
  at 202.
• 2 J.D.Morton, The Function of Criminal Law in
  D. Stuart R.J. Delisle, Learning Canadian
  Criminal Law, 4th ed. (Scarborough Carswell,
  1993) at 140.

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• Numerous animal protection schemes exist in
  Canada some of which implicate animal use in
  experimental science and medicine.
• Notwithstanding such schemes, there is a range of
  views in Canadian society about animal use and
  the legitimacy of animal protection
• Impermissibility of animal use for any reason
  because animals are sentient beings worthy of the
  same treatment as humans.
• This viewpoint is at odds with Western societies
  as they are presently constructed and operated
  especially 9n regard to the institution of
  property in law, animals are chattel, that is
  personal property.
• The permissibility of use in some circumstances
  and for some reasons where substitutes are
  unavailable and the use is humane.
• The permissibility of unrestricted animal use
  regardless of actual or potential pain, suffering
  or social utility.
• _____
• Canada, Department of Justice, Crimes Against
  Animals A Consultation Paper (Ottawa Criminal
  Law Policy Section, at 3.

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• Bentham
• Is it the faculty of reason, or, perhaps the
  faculty of discourse?
• But a full-grown horse or dog, is beyond
  comparison, a more rational, as well as a more
  conversible animal, than an infant of a day, or a
  week, or even a month, old.
• But suppose the case were otherwise, what would
  it avail? the question is not, Can they reason?
  nor, Can they talk? But, Can they suffer?

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• At issue for animals are basic fundamental
  entitlements, notably
• the entitlements to life and liberty, that is to
  live the kind of life the animals nature
  dictates and the entitlement to well-being.
• The degree of respect owed to animals is
  determined on the one hand by
• reliance on animals attributes, phylogeny and
  sentience, and
• the human significance of such attributes given
• a nature that is shared and
• the human social and moral significance of
  respect for animal life.
• Notwithstanding this, the historicity of the
  Canadian animal protection legal regime is
  squarely rooted in classical deontological
  theories of moral rights which
• accord to animals the status of being objects of
  moral concern but not moral subjects or agents.
• We turn therefore to a consideration of the
  institution of PROPERTY and the status of animals
  as personal property or chattel.

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• If animals are property, what are the
  implications for animals, or
• conversely what are the rights of property
  ownership?
• the right to the use of the property
• the right to its disposal, and
• the right to benefit from the fruits or
  productivity/bounty of the property.
• Corollary right of property non-interference
  with the property or privacy.
• Where animal anti-cruelty legislation or other
  regulatory regimes exist, they act to limit
  property rights and lift the veil of privacy.
• It is important to recognize that most
  anti-cruelty legislative schemes impose
• negative duties, that is the thou shalt nots
  and

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• Regarding animal use in experimental science and
  medicine
• the regulatory schemes operating in Ontario
  obligate research institutions to open their
  doors to inspection in the name of the public and
  effectively lift the veil of non-interference or
  privacy
• Animals for Research Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. A 22
  (the Act)
• Tri-council (CIHR, NSERC and SSRC) Memorandum of
  Understanding through the Canadian Council on
  Animal Care - Guidelines for the Care and Use of
  Experimental Animals, 1993 as am., Canadian
  Council on Animal Care and Policies.
• The Act and the Guidelines impose negative
  duties but interestingly and progressively also
  impose positive duties for animal well-being
  enablement
• e.g. environmental and psycho-social improvement
  (enrichment)
• determination of humane end-points as a necessary
  component of the submission to the Animal Care
  Committee.

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• If indeed animals are property like any other
  property, are there any animal interests which
  cannot be overridden if the consequences of the
  overriding are sufficiently beneficial to
  human-being property owners?
• At a theoretical level, the answer is NO, but the
  matter does not end here.
• There is the not-so-little matter of proving
  benefit so as to justify the intended animal use.
• Given that argumentation in favour of use is
  advanced on the basis of probability and not
  certainty, such proof is difficult to make.
• It follows then, recognizing that in Canada
  animal sentience imposes a secular moral as well
  as legal obligation against gratuitous or
  unnecessary animal use, another principle is
  engaged the precautionary principle.
• In the result, these (and other principles)
  combine to mitigate against unrestricted animal
  use notwithstanding potential benefits to human
  kind.

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• How then is animal use practically restricted?
• Much of the ethical discourse around intended
  animal use in experimental medicine and science
  turns on proportionality.
• That is any harm which may accrue to an animal
  must be proportional to the benefit which may
  arise from the animals use.

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• The harm to be experienced must be
• the necessary and unavoidable consequence of the
  experimental manipulation.
• All avoidable harm must be avoided. In point of
  fact, the proposed Crimes Against Animals
  amendment of Criminal Code of Canada specifically
  addresses the issue of
• negligence, that is the non-avoidance of
  avoidable harms or wilful blindness to harms
  which may follow from the use.
• The scientific or pedagogical pre-conditions for
  the determination of the ethical merit of the use
  of the animals are whether the intended use is
• scientifically (or pedagogically) meritorious,
  that is
• not gratuitous or unnecessary
• the scientific question asked must be sound, and
• the methodology proposed to answer the question
  must be

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• Who makes the ethical merits determinations of
  the propriety of animal use in experimental
  medicine and science?
• It is the Animal Care Committee (ACC) which
  reports to the Vice-President, Research, Dr. Mona
  Nemer.
• The Committees Chair is Dr. David Parry.
• Its Terms of Reference are posted on the
  Universitys website (researchgt key servicesgt
  Animal Care, Veterinary Services and Ethicsgt
  Animal Care CommitteegtTerms of Reference).
• The Statutory member of the Committee (the Act)
  is the University Veterinarian (Dr. M. Keaney)
  who has a dual accountability through the Animals
  for Research Act and the Veterinarians Act.
• Statutory Animal Care Committtee Member and
• Membership in good standing of the College of
  Veterinarians of Ontario

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• There are also two community representatives who
  inform decision-making by articulating community
  standards and expectations.
• Academic faculty (by constituency) who are / are
  not animal users.
• Students/post-doctoral fellows and technical
  personnel are represented on the Committee.
• The Animal Care Committee not only is responsible
  for ethical merit determinations and protocol
  approvals but also for post-approval monitoring
  the performance of all persons implicated in
  animal use and care at the University.
• The Animal Care Committee is also responsible for
  educating the University community about animal
  use and care in experimental science and medicine.

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• Guiding Principles for Animal Use and Care for
  Research and Educational Purposes
• Document prepared and approved by the
  Universitys Animal Care Management Committee
• Articulates the shared responsibility
  (management academia - administration) for
  animal use and care and the obligation to develop
  partnerships.

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• Policy 31 The Animal Use and Care Program at
  the University of Ottawa
• Articulates the scope of responsibilities.
• Articulates that animals are the property of the
  University (trust/trustee relationship between
  the University and Researchers).
• This is required to permit the University to
  execute its legal obligations regarding animal
  use and care and to avoid exposure to legal
  liability of trespass on property (animals).

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• Application Forms for animal research subjects
  ethical merits review are available on-line.
• Qualifications All persons working with animals
  must be competent to perform required
  manipulations (avoidable harm).
• National Institutional Animal User Training
  Program of the Canadian Council on Animal Care
• Mandatory as of April 1, 2003 as per CIHR and
  NSERC and is a web-based program Canadian
  Aquaculture Institute web-based program for
  aquatic species.
• Hands-on training.

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• Animal Care Committee Analysis
• Scientific Merit Review
• Refinement, Replacement, Reduction
• Veterinary Review
• Humane and Experimental End-points
• Medical Management and Treatment
• Pain and distress
• Dehydration, nutrition
• Other
• Disputes and Conflict of Interest
• Who has the last word
• Past performance
• The Public Interest and Institutional
  Accountability
• Constraints on animal research subject use.

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• Whos Who
• Animal Care Committee 562-5444
• Dr. D. Parry Chair
• M. Keaney University Veterinarian and Director,
  Animal Care, Veterinary Service and Ethics
• Ms. M. Goodspeed, M.A. Animal Care Committee
  Co-ordinator
• Ms. C. Giguere Education, Training and
  Post-Approval Monitoring Co-ordinator
• Animal Care Veterinary Service 562-5412
• J. Keyte, DVM, Veterinary Officer
• M. Groleau, DVM, CLAM Clinical Veterinarian
• M. Liepman, DVM Clinical Veterinary (PT)
• Ms. M. Tyssen, RMLAT, Manager, Animal Care
  Services
• Ms. M. Brodeur, R.D.C. S. Animal Procurement
  and Shipping
• Ms. M.-L. McCormick, B.Sc. Finance and
  Administration
• Ms. S. Fyfe, RVT Chief Technician Roger
  Guindon Hall
• Ms. C. Giguere, RVT, Chief Technician ACVS
  Barrier Facility, Roger Guindon Hall
• Mr. D. DeVette, RVT Chief Technician University
  of Ottawa Heart Institute 761-4211

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• CASE STUDY Dr. Q
• Purpose of the Experiment
• This work will evaluate the efficacy of drug X as
  a treatment for inflammatory bowel disease
  further elucidating the biochemical pathways
  implicated in the disease and the pathophysiology
  of the disease.
• It is hypothesized that drug X will block the
  biochemical pathway which triggers the
  pathophysiology.
• Funding
• While the work is funded by a granting agency
  through a program grant, funds are limited.
• Publications
• Dr. Jones has prior publications on this subject.
• Historical animal-use conventions precluded pain
  management.

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ANIMAL RESEARCH SUBJECTS UNNECESSARY ANIMAL USE,
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• Animal Model
• The model is an induced model of inflammatory
  bowel disease.
• The time course for the onset of clinical signs
  is 2 days. The disease is fulminant at 2 weeks.
• The time course for experiment is 3 weeks.
• The therapeutic drug X will be used at 5 doses.
• There are positive and negative controls
  disease/no disease drug/vehicle.
• In vitro Analysis
• Eighteen hours are required to prepare reagents
  for in vitro processing of the animals tissues.