Are animal experiments painful

1
Are animal experiments painful?

• What might lead to pain, suffering, distress or
  harm in an animal used in experiments?
• Do you think animals experience pain and distress
  in the same way as humans?

2
Classifying experiments

• The law divides experiments into four classes
• Mild slight adverse effects, e.g. taking blood
  samples
• Moderate includes injections that cause a
  reaction and many surgical procedures, provided
  that suffering is controlled by effective pain
  relief and care
• Substantial includes major surgery and testing
  chemicals which cause a significant level of pain
  or death
• Unclassified when animals are put under
  anaesthetic before the experiment and are killed
  before they recover consciousness

3
Which is worse?

• An experiment that uses many animals but does not
  cause much pain or distress?
• or
• An experiment that uses one or two animals but is
  very painful?

4
Number of projects at each level of severity
Mild 38
Unclassified 2
Substantial 2
Moderate 58
These figures are for 2006
5
How many experiments in the UK are mild, moderate
and substantial?

• We dont know.
• We only know the numbers of mild, moderate and
  substantial projects, which is an average of many
  experiments e.g.
• Many mild experiments a few substantial
  experiments a moderate project
• Is this enough information?