Law and Animals: United States | 367 Wolf, J.-C 2005 Tierethik—Neue Perspektiven für Menschen und Tiere, 2nd ed Erlangen: Harald Fischer Antoine F Goetschel LAW AND ANIMALS: UNITED STATES During the 1960s, vivid press coverage both of the kidnapping of family pets that were then sold for research, and also of the conditions under which dog dealers who sold animals to research facilities kept these animals, aroused the public’s fear of having their pets kidnapped and sold for research Congress reacted to these concerns by passing the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act of 1966, which mainly licensed and regulated animal suppliers but did little to assure the wellbeing of animals used in research By the 1970s, however, more substantive concerns about animal research had surfaced in society Growing public suspicions and misgivings about animal research were solidified in the early 1980s, when a number of serious examples of animal abuse in research facilities were revealed, including instances at the University of Pennsylvania Head Injury Laboratory and the laboratory of Edward Taub, both situations which involved abuse, improper care, and neglect of nonhuman primates By the mid-1980s, public confidence in the research community’s ability to regulate itself in the area of animal care and use was sufficiently eroded to demand federal legislation In 1976, a group of Colorado citizens consisting of two laboratory animal veterinarians, a humane advocate and attorney, and a philosopher began proposing legis- lation that would enforce self-regulation by local animal care and use committees These committees would review research projects before they began, in order to make sure that everything possible was being done to assure that animal pain, distress, and suffering were minimized The committees would also assure that facilities were adequate, and that systems of care assured proper animal husbandry In 1985, despite vigorous opposition from certain portions of the research community, the key concepts proposed by the Colorado group were passed by Congress as components of two pieces of legislation The first piece of legislation was passed as an amendment to the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act and was entitled the Improved Standards for Laboratory Animals Act The second piece of legislation, complementing the first, was the Health Research Extension Act The major provisos of the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act amendment were as follows: Establishment of an institutional animal care and use committee (IACUC) whose members must include a veterinarian and a person not affiliated with the research facility A directive to the U.S Department of Agriculture (USDA), which enforces the law, to establish standards for exercise for dogs Establishment of standards for a physical environment for primates that enhances their psychological wellbeing Establishment of standards of adequate veterinary care, including use of anesthetics, analgesics, and tranquilizers