What Are The Real Facts Statistics About Us Animals In Research Testing

In 2019, United states government statistics put the number of laboratory animals used in enquiry at 797,546, an increase of 2.2% from 2018. This includes both public and private institutions. These statistics do non include all animals every bit most mice, rats, and fish are non covered past the Animal Welfare Act – though they are still covered by other regulations that protect animate being welfare. We besides have not included the 137,225 animals which were kept in research facilities in 2019 but were not involved in any research studies.

The statistics bear witness that 53% of research is on guinea pigs, hamsters and rabbits, while 10% is on dogs or cats and nine% on non-human primates. In the UK, where mice, rats, fish and birds are counted in the annual statistics, over 96% of enquiry is on rodents, birds and fish. Beyond the Eu, which measures animal use slightly differently, 93% of enquiry is on species not counted under the Animal Welfare Act (AWA). If similar proportions were applied the The states, the total number of vertebrates used in inquiry in the US would be between 12 and 24 one thousand thousand, however, in that location are no published statistics to ostend this. Given the assumptions fabricated above on the number of other species used, it is likely that dogs, cats and non-human primates together account for 1% or less of the animals used in research every twelvemonth.

Of the creature species covered under the Animal Welfare Act, 66% were involved in experiments where they experienced no hurting and therefore no anesthesia was required, 28% were involved in procedures where they experienced some pain and/or required anesthesia and vi% of all animals experiences some pain but no anesthesia was provided because it would interfere with the experimental purpose.

^{Click to enlarge. The statistical information totals for all hurting categories (797,406) exercise not match the full number of animals (797,546). The USDA has previously issued corrections to their reports and it is likely that they volition do so again.}

Government statistics evidence that the use of non-rodent animals has been failing over the past ii decades. Since 1985 the utilize of animals has more than halved in the United states of america. This includes a decrease in the number of dogs from over 200,000 in 1979, to around 58,000 in 2019. Some of this decrease is likely to reverberate a movement towards the use of genetically modified mice.

Allow u.s.a. put the number of animals used in perspective. Scientists in the Us use approximately 12-24 million animals in research, of which merely less than one million are not rats, mice, birds or fish. We use fewer animals in enquiry than the number of ducks eaten per year in this country. Nosotros consume over 1800 times the number of pigs than the number used in research. Nosotros consume over 340 chickens for each animate being used in a inquiry facility, and virtually 9,000 chickens for every animate being used in enquiry covered by the Animal Welfare Act. For every animal used in research, information technology is estimated that 14 more are killed on our roads.

USDA Almanac Reports on Animal Usage in Research: