performedonanimalsin1988.^19 IntheUnitedStatesthere
are nofigures of comparable accuracy.Under the Animal
Welfare Act, the U.S. secretary of agriculture publishes a
report listing the number of animals used by facilities
registeredwithit,butthisisincompleteinmanyways.Itdoes
notincluderats,mice,birds,reptiles,frogs,ordomesticfarm
animalsusedforexperimentalpurposes;itdoesnotinclude
animalsused insecondaryschools;and itdoesnotinclude
experiments performed by facilities that do not transport
animals interstate or receive grants or contracts from the
federal government.
In 1986 theU.S.CongressOfficeofTechnologyAssessment
(OTA) publisheda report entitled “Alternativesto Animal
Use in Research, Testing and Education.” The OTA
researchers attempted
todeterminethenumberofanimalsusedinexperimentation
intheU.S.andreportedthat“estimatesoftheanimalsusedin
theUnitedStateseachyearrangefrom 10 milliontoupwards
of 100 million.” They concluded that the estimates were
unreliablebuttheirbestguesswas“atleast 17 millionto 22
million.”^20
This is an extremely conservative estimate. In testimony
before Congressin 1966, the Laboratory Animal Breeders
Associationestimatedthatthenumberofmice,rats, guinea
pigs,hamsters,andrabbitsusedforexperimentalpurposesin
1965 wasaround 60 million.^21 In 1984 Dr.AndrewRowanof
Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine estimated
thatapproximately 71 millionanimalsareusedeachyear.In
1985 Rowanrevisedhisestimatestodistinguishbetweenthe
number of animals produced,acquired, and actually used.
This yielded an estimate of between 25 and 35 million