Today, I want to discuss this article called "Why I am a Laboratory Animal Veterinarian" written by a third year resident at Colorado State University. It's not very long and I encourage anyone - vet student, pre-vet, non-vet, small animal, large animal, whatever and whoever - to read it.

First and foremost, whenever I read an article that someone posts on Facebook, I check the source. This particular article comes from a website called Speaking of Research and I fully admit that it's essentially at the opposite end of the spectrum as PETA and the like. While I am quite obviously supportive of the use of animals in research and teaching, my future role (fingers crossed/God willing/knock on wood/whatever) as a lab animal will require me to constantly search for ways to minimize and even negate the use of animals in research and teaching.

I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating: lab animal medicine revolves around three principles - replace, reduce, refine. When a protocol (a proposal for the use of animals in research) is evaluated by the appropriate committees, one of the first things we ask is, why do you feel you have to use animals for this study? Researchers must defend their desire to use animals, the numbers of animals they want to use, the species they want to use, etc. It isn't as though we say, "4,000 baby chimpanzees? Sure, no problem!" Numbers are justified using detailed statistical analysis - most of the time the very minimum number of animals needed to achieve statistical significance are used; that way, animal numbers are reduced but their lives will not be used in vain because the results mean something. And refinement, that last pillar, can mean a multitude of things - different "less sentient" species (mice over macaques, for example), pain medication, anesthesia for procedures, animal user training, etc. "The Three R's" as they're called in research are the foundation for everything and are taken very seriously.

So as a lab animal vet, you should always be striving to reduce numbers, replace animals with computer models or tissue culture or the like when possible and to refine procedures to absolutely minimize any possibility of pain or distress.

The problem comes with the general public. Many people love animals - millions of dogs and cats alone are owned in the US and billions go into food, treats and their care. The general, animal loving public don't participate in research environments and so all that they know of "animal testing" (read: research) are the graphic pictures circulated by the media. Oftentimes these pictures are taken out of context and aren't even from animal research scenarios. Other times they are from animal research environments but don't mention that the animal can't be feeling any pain because it's anesthetized or that the procedure is not actually invasive (just as an example). So the animal loving public sees these images (paired with sensationalist narrative by animal rights groups) and they equate animal research to, essentially, animal torture.

I wish everyone could know the lab animal vets I've worked with, been in the facilities I've been in and worked with the animal subjects I've worked with. It is nothing like what is so frequently portrayed by the media. What if we took a snap-shot of a small animal hospital at one point during the day? There's a screaming cat held to the table by it's scruff, one leg extended for a blood collection, the vein held off by a chop-motion-positioned hand. The cat is yowling, hissing, screaming, writhing, struggling, stressing. Imagine being judged on a nano-second snapshot of your every day life...it is not at all representative and it frankly isn't fair to the people who work so hard to make these animals' lives as good as possible and to the animals who give so generously to research.

I don't pretend that everything in lab animal medicine is perfect. I wish toxicology testing (the "face" of the animal rights groups' campaigns) did not have to continue to happen. But the fact of the matter is, I am going into lab animal medicine to care for those animals and make sure that everything possible continues to be done in their favor and that the future of lab animal medicine continues to improve for every animal used. I wish people could connect life saving cancer drugs, vaccines, product safety, new medications, new technology, etc. to the use of animals in research. And if they so badly want change, they should focus on developing new technologies to replace animals instead of attempting to harm animal care personnel, free animals and slander an industry that works very hard to provide good care for animals and develop the future of health and wellbeing for both humans and animals.