• Question: What happens to animals once an experiment is completed?

    Asked by jessc to Jo, Kevin, Louise, Valeria on 20 Jun 2012.
    • Photo: Kevin Mahon

      Kevin Mahon answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Thar depends entirely on the experiment and the animals! For me, I’m observing owned cats, so they stay at their home all the time. When I worked with centipedes, when my experiments were done, I gave them to another researcher who was counting segments, then we returned them to the wild where we got them! Obviously lab animals that are kept in house aren’t released after experiments, they are looked after until the next one.

    • Photo: Joanna Cruden

      Joanna Cruden answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Just to expand on Kevin’s point In terms of laboratory animals, many of the experiments conducted are minimally invasive – such as taking blood or urine samples the animals may be used in more than one study if this is approved of by a qualified vet, however for many experiments we will need to gain information as much information as possible about the effects of products on an animal’s tissues or organs; in such instances the animal will be humanely put down (usually in the same way that a vet would put a pet animal down by an injection of a overdose of anaesthetic suitable for the species) once the study has completed and an autopsy is carried out to understand how the drug has interacted in the body.

      With the introduction of Genetically Modified animals because some of them have the potential to reproduce they are not allowed to leave a laboratory by law and at the end of the studies they must be humanly euthanized.
      Under the Animals Scientific Procedures Act 1986, all laboratory animals must be humanely euthanized after a study unless there is specific approval from the Home Office and the named vet signs the animal off as fit to continue.

      There are a few animals who may get released from the act (all laboratory animals are protected under the act I have just mentioned and cannot be released from the act without special approval from a Home Office Inspector, and a Named Vet) so sometimes (but this is rare) dogs may be re-homed, but I feel that for every laboratory dog that is re-homed a dog waiting in a homeless shelter is not. Some primates have been re-homed (so to speak) into zoos and safari parks . To be honest some experiments do last for the lifetime of the animal.

      However short or long their lives are in the laboratory I hope you feel reassured they are given the highest care and welfare we can offer them within the UK and we treat them all with the dignity, respect and sensitivity they deserve.

      Wild animals and other animals, providing they are fit and healthy can be released back into the wild.

      These types of questions are much better to have a discussion about, I hope I have answered it clearly for you but if you want further clarification from me please do ask.

Comments