Humane Society Institute for Science and Policy
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Update – Food & Drug Administration’s Animal Testing Mandate
No full textFollowing the end of the Second World War, the World Medical Association developed new ethical guidelines regarding research involving human subjects. These guidelines included requirements to obtain informed consent from research subjects but also emphasized the importance of conducting animal research before engaging in human clinical trials and other human research. This principle was included in legislation mandating the FDA to require prior animal research before permitting human trials of new drugs. That mandate was recently eliminated by new US legislation cosponsored by Senators Cory Booker and Rand Paul. The FDA can now encourage non-animal methods and no longer has to require animal tests. In 2016, Dr. Francis Collins, the NIH Director, predicted that the use of animals in the development and testing of new drugs would be primarily replaced by non-animal technologies that “are more accurate, at lower cost and with higher throughput” within ten years. The new legislation frees up the FDA to achieve that outcome
Life of Willie B. - Public Policy & Psychological Well-being - Part 3
No full textThis tale is the last in a three-part series about Willie B., Atlanta’s iconic ape and one of the most famous gorillas in the world
In Pursuit of a Silver Bullet for Pet Population Control: a Chemical Sterilant for Dogs and Cats
No full textRecent research has produced a chemical sterilant for cats that is effective and safe. Now, it must be approved for use by the regulatory agencies
The Rat Trap by Pandora Pound
No full textThe book critically analyzes animal research and argues for greater emphasis on human cell technologies and clinical research
One Health: A Public Health Solution or Slogan?
No full textOne Medicine has now morphed into One Health, but the concept has yet to be wholeheartedly embraced by the medical profession. In 2008, a Commentary in the American Journal of Medicine noted that medical schools, unlike veterinary schools, typically do not emphasize the ecology of zoonotic pathogens despite the estimated 60% of human diseases (and 75% of emerging diseases) originating in animals. The situation may be changing
Plant sentience? Between romanticism and denial: Science
No full textA growing number of non-human animal species are being seriously considered as candidates for sentience, but plants are either forgotten or explicitly excluded from these debates. In our view, this is based on the belief that plant behavior is hardwired and inflexible and on an underestimation of the role of plant electrophysiology. We weigh such assumptions against the evidence to suggest that it is time to take seriously the hypothesis that plants, too, might be sentient. We hope this target article will serve as an invitation to investigate sentience in plants with the same rigor as in non-human animals
Plant sentience and the case for ethical veganism
No full textDoes the possibility of plant sentience pose a problem for ethical veganism? It has not yet been demonstrated that plants are sentient (i.e., that they can feel). Moreover, even if it were demonstrated that plants could feel, it would also have to be demonstrated that they can feel the affectively “valenced” feelings that are ethically significant, such as pain and fear, rather than just neutral sensations such as darker/lighter, or wetter/drier. Finally, if plants could feel valenced feelings, veganism would likely still be the ethical option, on the principle of causing the least harm
Language matters
No full textThe term sentience tends to be associated with affective valence along with affectively neutral sensory states. In the absence of evidence for affectively laden states in plants, the use of the term sentience in the exploration of plant sensory and behavioral complexity is misleading and ethically problematic for its potential to trivialize animal sentience
Associative learning: Unmet criterion for plant sentience
No full textIn a thought-provoking target article, Segundo-Ortin & Calvo (S&C) discuss the possibility that plants are sentient, focusing on a series of capacities normally attributed only to human and nonhuman animals. S&C propose learning as a marker for sentience. We review studies reporting associative learning in plants and find that they either lack essential controls or fail to produce replicable results. The capacity to learn has not yet been demonstrated in plants, so it cannot be used to support the hypothesis that plants are sentient. Further studies are needed. But agnosticism about sentience should not deter us from investigating unexpected new capacities in plants
A Year of Wins for Farmed Animals
No full textAlthough the European Union shelved its ambitious farmed animal welfare reforms, there were other “wins” for farmed animals in 2023. There were 130 new corporate pledges to eliminate cages for laying hens and the worst abuses of broiler chickens. So far, over 1,000 corporate pledges have been fully implemented, and 39% of American hens, 60% of European hens, and 80% of British hens are cage-free, up from 6%, 41%, and 48%, respectively, a decade ago. The US Supreme Court upheld California’s Proposition 12, which bans the sale of eggs, pork, and veal from caged animals and their offspring in California. Denmark unveiled a plan to promote plant-based eating, and South Korea announced it would unveil such a plan soon. The European Parliament called for an EU-wide action plan for increased plant-based protein production and consumption. Other advances included positive actions on crustaceans in Britain and fish in the EU