Let’s Bring Government-Funded Animal Experiments Out of the Shadows

Estimates of the number of animals used each year in U.S. labs vary wildly—from 10 million to 110 million. Most of those animals are used by federally funded labs, but because the federal government does not collect accurate information, the public is in the dark. In comparison, the governments of other countries—including the United Kingdom, Canada, and the entire European Union—collect and publish detailed information on how many animals are used in research and testing.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has stated that it is committed to reducing its reliance on animals, and the scientific community is supposed to be committed to the replacement and reduction of animals in labs. But Americans have no idea whether the United States is achieving that goal on a national level.

Currently, NIH only collects animal numbers every four years and does not request the total number of animals used. Instead, the agency simply collects a crude estimate. And the information NIH does collect is only available through Freedom of Information Act requests, which take months to fulfill. In contrast to NIH, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) accurately tracks those animals covered under the Animal Welfare Act, but that law only covers about 5% of animals used in experiments.

Thankfully, new federal legislation would fix this problem. The Federal Animal Research Accountability Act, led by Reps. Lisa McClain (R-Mich.) and Don Davis (D-N.C.), would require that all labs receiving funds from U.S. Public Health Service agencies annually complete a one-page form that includes the total number of animals bred, housed, and used in the previous year, sorted by species and level of pain and distress. NIH would then make those annual reports available to the public via an agency website.