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AWI has completed publication of a new edition of Comfortable Quarters for Laboratory Animals to promote the humane housing and handling of the millions of animals used each year in research facilities. Edited by AWI’s scientific advisor, Dr. Viktor Reinhardt and his wife, Annie, this is AWI’s ninth edition of the book, which was first published in 1955. We provide copies free on request to scientific institutions, members of Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees, veterinarians, and architects. It is available to others at cost price, $5.00. This volume is an essential tool to ensure that each species used in biomedical research or testing is housed appropriately and cared for with the greatest attention to the animals’ welfare. As Professor David Morton, Head of the Centre for Biomedical Ethics at England’s University of Birmingham, notes in his Foreword, “attempting to meet [animals’] needs and avoiding adverse mental or physical states, such as boredom, frustration, pain, distress, can only be to the benefit of both the animals and science.” The new edition comes out at a pivotal time in the quest to achieve humane treatment of animals in laboratories - a time when Congress has legislated the biologically and scientifically indefensible notion that rats, mice, and birds are not animals deserving minimal care under the law. As the Reinhardts aver in their Introduction, “We see no scientific, ethical or logical justification for this seemingly arbitrary justification.” This comprehensive 114-page book includes chapters on comfortable quarters for mice, gerbils, rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, rabbits, cats, dogs, primates, pigs, sheep, cattle, horses, chickens, amphibians, and reptiles. |
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