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Laboratory rats are excluded from any
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Despite being looked upon as a symbol of prosperity, rats pay an immense price as they are used extensively in laboratories for harmful research and testing.
Ironically, one of the reasons for their unenviable role in research is their docile character, which has also led to their great popularity as a beloved companion animal.
Rats Used in Research
There is no way to know exactly how many rats are used in research and testing because—surprisingly—laboratory-bred rats are not protected under the minimal standards of care and use afforded most animals under Animal Welfare Act.
In other words, they are not considered to be "animals" under the Animal Welfare Act. An examination of research grants and publications shows that rats are often used in research that causes pain and suffering, further raising concerns about their lack of protection under the main law regarding animal research in the U.S.
Rats have a mild temperament and interact well with humans. They exhibit unique personalities and are as eager to bond to human caretakers as any dog would be. Rats are easy to handle and of high intelligence (near that of a 3-year-old human child)—quickly learning to respond when their name is called, use a litter box and master many other tasks.
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Life in a Lab: No Place for a Rat
For the intelligent and inquisitive rat, laboratory conditions can be ill-suited to meet their needs for play, exploration and foraging for food. Rats used in research are most often kept in small, shoebox-like cages sometimes lined with shavings or pellets.
Some rats are also kept on grid flooring, which can result in painful sores and calluses on their feet.
Rats are social animals who need the company of other rats to engage in favorite activities such as chasing, grooming each other, sleeping piled into a heap, and wrestling.
Lab life for rats can involve social isolation and continual environmental disturbances, leading to stress. Housing and routine lab procedures such as cage transport, handling, and drawing blood have been shown to cause impaired brain development and stereotypical behaviors that may interfere with experiment results. Confined to their cages, laboratory rats may also endure many hours of isolation and intense boredom.
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Wild at Heart
Despite generations of domestication, research has revealed that rats will quickly adapt to life in the wild when given the opportunity. A zoologist from Oxford University released 50 lab born-and-bred rats into an outdoor enclosure and followed their activity for six months.
He found that within several days, the rats were able to locate food, water and shelter and began to form hierarchical social groups—just as rats born in the wild do.
Research and Testing on Rats
Rats are used for a wide variety of research purposes—including the study of psychological disorders, addiction, neurological and other disorders, infectious disease, and toxicology.
A growing number of medical professionals have raised concerns that the rat is a poor model for human disease research and drug testing. One reason is that effects in humans can be quite different from effects in rats.
Laboratory rats (and other animals) suffering from severe distress can also skew and even invalidate research results. In addition, there are many anatomical and physiological differences between rats and humans. For example, rats have no gallbladder, tonsils, or sweat glands. Rats are unable to vomit and have a heart rate four times that of humans.
Dangerous Medicine
Toxicity testing performed on rats exposes them to extremely painful experiments such as single dose acute toxicity tests which are used to determine the lethal dose of a chemical. Besides the animal cruelty inherent in such tests, drugs found safe through toxicity testing in rats in fact have caused severe, permanent side effects and even death when taken by humans.
Alternatives to Using Rats
Due to growing consumer opposition to chemical testing on animals and the questionable reliability of such tests, the demand for more reliable, non-animal tests are at an all time high. Just one of many promising alternatives is a glass chip that holds human cell cultures and enzymes that would mimic human reactions to possibly toxic chemicals.
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Laboratory Rats: No Welfare Protections
Although laboratory-bred rats are by far among the most frequently used animals in research—believed to be second only to mice—they are not protected under minimal standards of care and use provided under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA)., enforced by USDA.
It is estimated that more than 20 million rats and mice are used in the U.S. in research and testing each year, with tens of millions more bred and subsequently killed. Among countries that afford legal protections to laboratory animals, the U.S. is the only one to exclude birds, rats of the genus Rattus, and mice of the genus Mus bred for research.
Research facilities that solely use laboratory bred rats and/ or other species not covered by the AWA are also not required to undergo USDA facility inspections.
The U.S.
Public Health Service (PHS) Policy does provide some standards for lab bred rats; however, this policy only applies to U.S. Institutions receiving federal funding to conduct animal research.
Furthermore, the PHS policy does not carry the weight of the AWA, nor impose financial penalties—a major flaw inherent in the animal research oversight system in the United States.
Humane Euthanasia?
At the end of the research procedure(s) they are used for, rats are commonly killed in large numbers, often by using carbon dioxide gas (CO2), despite serious concerns regarding pain and distress caused by this form of euthanasia.
What You Can Do
-- Choose Cruelty-Free Products
Rats often undergo inhumane toxicity tests in order for products such as make-up, shampoo, creams and cleaning products to be put on the market. You can take a stand against the needless suffering of all animals used for chemical testing by choosing personal care products that are not tested on animals. For an up-to-date listing of companies and products that are cruelty-free, visit The Coalition for Consumer Information on Cosmetics
-- Stay Informed
To stay updated on issues regarding rats and other animals used in research and how you can help prevent their suffering, visit our Animals in Research homepage, which is frequently updated with the latest news. On the homepage you will also find a link to our Take Action page, which lists ways that you can actively help animals used in research.
Updated June 5, 2009
