Animal experimentation in the United States was virtually unregulated 50 years ago, and government-funded research was growing. Laboratory animal care was often shockingly inadequate and dogs and cats from municipal pounds were widely used in medical research, but public support for research and institutional influence made this hard to change. But The HSUS pushed for comprehensive federal legislation to protect animals used in research and education and advocated the Three Rs—reducing, refining, and replacing the use of research animals.

In 1958 we launched our first undercover investigations of labs, and we investigated animal dealers in the 1960s, providing crucial momentum for the passage of the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act in 1966. This law focused on preventing pet theft by regulating dog and cat trafficking and assigned the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) authority to enforce it. The law also set standards for the housing, feeding, and veterinary care of dogs and cats in labs.

While the law covered only a small percentage of species used in research and didn't protect animals during experimentation, it was an important starting point. And our staff continued to investigate labs and testify, fight for proper enforcement, and lobby for legislation to extend coverage.

Late in 1970 President Richard M. Nixon signed legislation that made the Laboratory Animal Welfare Act the new Animal Welfare Act (AWA). The AWA regulated more dealers and handlers and provided for enhanced housing, treatment, and veterinary care for animals in labs—including pain- and stress-reducing drug use—but it still didn't extend protection to animals undergoing experimental procedures and didn't encourage replacing animal use in research.

In spite of our successful work to help lab animals, the number used actually increased from roughly 17 million in the mid-1950s to about 60 million in the early 1970s. So we pushed for administrative reforms within the USDA to strengthen the AWA and continued to protest the USDA's weak enforcement, working to enhance government accountability, successfully petitioning for regulatory coverage of farm animals used in biomedical research, filing an administrative petition to include mice, rats, and birds under the law, and encouraging backing for the Three Rs. Our efforts have helped reduce animal use in labs by 50 percent since the mid-70s.

While the AWA has deficiencies, it has helped improve animal well-being. Under pressure from The HSUS and other groups, the AWA expanded to include more species and more environments in which animals are used. New levels of oversight have been put in place. The AWA was the instrument of needed reforms in animal transport and the protection of animals outside research labs. It was also, especially after 1985, the frame of reference for debates over evolving definitions of animal well-being, pain and distress, and environmental enrichment in labs. And The HSUS has played a key role in boosting the USDA's budget by 81 percent over the last five years to better enforce the law.