The Animal Welfare Act is a federal law that is responsible for the humane care, treatment, transportation, and handling of animals in laboratories, zoos, aquariums, dog and cat breeders, circuses, and many other areas. It requires that facilities provide housing, have humane treatment, ventilation, shelter, veterinary care, and separation by species, but only provides minimal rules to control these things. This makes it sound like the facilities are required to do a lot for their animals, but in reality, the standards are set very low. For example, the animals’ cage size is only required to allow them to turn around, and elephant handlers have the ability to stab elephants with sharp hooks to handle them. The Animal Welfare Act is also very poorly enforced. The USDA’s commitment to the advancement of science, medicine, and agriculture has taken precedence over the protection of animals. Current inspection policies allow facilities that violate the Animal Welfare Act to continue running, and facilities are rarely prosecuted.

The current practice of animal testing undoubtedly needs to be changed. First of all because of the unnecessary pain and suffering it causes animals. The Animal Welfare act does not protect animals against unnecessary pain and suffering and will not prevent an experiment from happening based on the animals’ pain levels. There are no regulations that control what is done in an experiment or what the animal will have to endure. It also does not protect the species that are the most widely used in experiments such as birds, mice, and rats. The Animal Welfare Act needs to be modified so that it covers rats, mice, and birds, puts limits on unnecessary experiments, and requires animals to be anesthetized if an experiment may cause them pain. It also needs to be enforced more strictly. Facilities should be required to uphold the standards set by the Animal Welfare Act, and should be punished if they violate them. The funds that are invested in the breeding, care, and testing of laboratory animals should also be redirected to find and develop alternative methods of experimentation.