USDA Guidance Includes PETA’s Recommendations on Anesthesics for Animals in Experiments

June 2012

In response to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) call for comments on the use of pain-relieving drugs for animals used in testing, PETA submitted scientific recommendations to lessen the suffering of animals during painful tests. In cases where modern, non-animal tests have not been developed for the testing of veterinary vaccines, animals can be subjected to painful, lethal experiments. The development of rabies vaccines, for example, requires the injection of the rabies virus directly into the brains of mice. In its final guidance, the USDA agreed with many of PETA’s recommendations, including that drug manufacturers be trained in best practices for reducing the suffering of animals in cases where non-animal replacements have not yet been developed for veterinary vaccine tests.