The use of laboratory animals in the largest U.S. labs has grown 70% over the last two decades, according to institutional records obtained by PETA. This is the first national count of this kind, because the vast majority of lab animals are excluded from U.S. government statistics.
Robert F. Bukaty / Associated Press / Via apimages.com
Since the late 1990s, the number of animals used in experiments at the biggest research universities in the U.S. has increased by more than 70%. So claim researchers with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) in a new study published in the Journal of Medical Ethics.
The study also concludes that 98.8% of the animals used at the 25 largest institutions that receive federal biomedical research funding are missing from government statistics. That's because the most widely used lab animals — mice, rats, and fish — are excluded from regulation under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA).
"Relative to somewhere like Canada or the U.K., the reporting requirements in the United States are so minimal that it's very difficult to get any truly reliable data," Justin Goodman, PETA's director of laboratory investigations, told BuzzFeed News.
According to the USDA, which enforces the AWA, 891,161 animals were used for research at U.S. labs in 2013, and another 147,815 were held by a research facility but not used in any experiments.
These numbers have been falling steadily over the years, leading some organizations to conclude that animal research is in decline. The website of the American Association for Laboratory Animal Science states: "The number of animals used in research has actually decreased in the past 20-25 years. Best estimates for the reduction in the overall use of animals in research range from 20-50%."
But the USDA numbers are gross underestimates of total animal use, thanks to the strange history of the AWA. When it was signed into law in 1966, "animal" was defined as dogs, cats, monkeys, guinea pigs, hamsters, and rabbits, plus "other warm-blooded animals" that the Secretary of Agriculture determined were being used in scientific experiments.
And in 2002, after lobbying by organizations that support animal research, Congress tweaked the AWA again to specifically exclude mice, rats, and birds.
While the USDA hasn't been keeping a tally of excluded species, institutions that receive research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are required to file assurances that they are complying with standards for animal welfare. These reports, submitted every four years, include an "average daily inventory" of animals in their labs — including species not covered by the AWA.
PETA's research team filed Freedom of Information Act requests for the most recent three reports submitted by the 25 largest recipients of NIH funding. Here are the numbers from the top five institutions, by total animals used, calculated by BuzzFeed News from the latest reports obtained by PETA:
Justine Zwiebel / BuzzFeed News
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