The idea that animal play is important and worthwhile is gaining traction within the biomedical research community. Indeed, the PRIM&R’s 2019 IACUC Conference (the acronyms stand for “Public Responsibility in Medicine and Research” and “Institutional...

On July 1, 2019, the National Institutes of Health awarded Johns Hopkins University’s Veit Stuphorn another major grant to study the neural mechanisms involved in risk-taking in monkeys. In year one of this new five-year...

Illinois has joined California, Nevada, and more than 30 countries worldwide in banning the sale of animal-tested cosmetics. SB 241, sponsored by Senator Linda Holmes (D-Aurora) and signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker on August 9...

Cosmetics testing on animals is a few steps closer to becoming a practice of the past. The Canadian Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act (Bill S-214) has passed the Senate and will now move forward to the House...

Mice have a strong preference to nest away from their own waste, and mice in laboratories should be housed in a system of cages that allows them to segregate space into clean and dirty areas...

In a laboratory, people matter: a key contributor to good animal welfare is the presence of compassionate caretakers. Research has shown that a “belief in animal mind” (BAM)—seeing animals as self-aware and capable of solving...

A recent discussion on the Laboratory Animal Refinement and Enrichment Forum (LAREF) focused on new enrichment ideas for rabbits. Brianna Parkinson initiated the conversation to share her experience and to ask what others have tried...

This study involved two monkeys that learned to play a computer game that gave them drops of juice when they won. The monkeys played voluntarily because they liked to gamble... This line, from a September...

Angelika Rehrig, Louis DiVincenti, Deborah Napolitano, and David McAdam The psychological well-being of laboratory primates is enhanced when they are allowed to voluntarily participate in their own care through a process called positive reinforcement training...

Three years ago, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced that it would no longer support experimentation on chimpanzees. The NIH stated that all of the chimps that it “owns” or supports would be eligible...