May 2001 News

Sen. Bob Dole Urges Inclusion of Rats, Mice, and Birds in AWA

May 16, 2001

Former U.S. Senator Bob Dole, who was deeply involved with the process of revising and expanding the provisions of the Animal Welfare Act (AWA), says that Congress fully intended for the AWA to apply to rats, mice and birds. "When Congress stated that the AWA applied to 'all warm-blooded animals,' we certainly did not intend to exclude 95 percent of the animals used in biomedical research laboratories," he writes.

Dole made this statement in a recent letter addressed to John McArdle, director of the Alternatives Research Development Foundation (ARDF). ARDF brought suit against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the federal agency responsible for enforcing the AWA, because its regulations specifically exclude rats, mice and birds under the definition of "animal" to be protected by the AWA. The suit argues that this exclusion is arbitrary and capricious--based on economic concerns rather than on scientific or ethical considerations.

Although the USDA agreed last fall to an out-of-court settlement with ARDF, Congress quickly voted to block implementation of this agreement for fiscal year 2001. This move came at the urging of several pro-research organizations, which strongly oppose the proposed inclusion of rats, mice, and birds, contending that regulation of these animals would result in a substantial increase in cost and paperwork and thereby hinder medical progress.

Dole's letter counters this argument. "I am aware of efforts by opponents of animal welfare to prevent coverage of birds, mice, and rats as detrimental to research," he says. "This notion is preposterous. A similar strategy was employed by opponents of my 1985 amendments to the Act. I am happy to observe that none of their predictions about the dire consequences for research ever materialized."

The AWA is the primary law that protects animals used for research in the United States. It became law in 1966 and has been revised several times since then. Dole sponsored the 1985 amendments, which brought many important changes, including the requirement to minimize pain and distress in experimental procedures and to consider alternatives to such procedures, as well as the establishment of Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees (IACUCs) to review experimental protocols involving animal use.

Dole supports the use of animals in research but firmly believes that there is a responsibility incumbent upon researchers to provide basic protections to the animals they use. "Through good animal treatment and minimizing painful tests, biomedical research gains in both accuracy and humanity," he says.

Dole points out that "we owe much to laboratory animals," and he urges the Bush administration and the members of the present Congress to "recognize that all animals used in experimentation deserve the benefit of the modest requirements of the Animal Welfare Act."

Dole's letter appeared in an advertisement, sponsored by the Working Group to Preserve the Animal Welfare Act, in the May 3, 2001 issue of Roll Call. Dole wrote this letter as a volunteer, he notes, and was "not being paid by any persons or group for stating my views."

For full text of the letter, please go to this page.

For additional background on the rats, mice, and birds issue, see the October 20, 2000 Altweb News item here.