The Animal Welfare Act has exclusions for birds, rats, mice used in research; livestock used for food or fiber; reptiles; amphibians; fish; and invertebrates. Considering 95% of the animals used in research are rats and mice and that billions of land animals slaughtered each year for food are exempted, a majority of the animals used by humans are excluded from the protection of the Animal Welfare Act.

Rats and mice are found to be just as caring of mothers - sacrificing their life for their offspring - as dogs and cats, in addition to being intelligent and sociable creatures, but when forced into the crammed conditions at most facilities, can often be driven to depression or insanity. Many see no difference between testing your beloved dog or cat and testing a rat or mouse, so why do you?

Animals are not a perfect model for humans; things that effect them have no harm on us, seeing as dogs are unable to consume chocolate while it is fine for us. Most of what is tested on animals, i.e. cosmetics, is not necessary for humans, and in addition, "non-animal methods usually take less time to complete than the crude, archaic animal tests that they replace. In addition, they cost only a fraction of what animal experiments cost and are not affected by species differences that make applying test results to humans difficult or impossible" (Peta). So, if it is possible, why continue else wise?