Humane Animal Research

The voters of the city of San Bernardino and Mendocino County and the Board of Supervisors of Los Angeles County have wisely resisted efforts to prohibit animal pounds from turning over unclaimed animals to medical-research laboratories. These decisions will help assure continued medical research that depends on the use of animals.

Animal-rights activists, in fighting experimentation, have expressed a universal concern about the potential for cruelty and have exposed cases of carelessness and inexcusable practices in some laboratories. But that is no reason to try to halt experimentation. Rather, it has led to appropriate disciplinary action for the few who were responsible for abuses, and it has led also to the establishment of new safeguards and to a new sensitivity in the scientific community about the importance of humane care of these animals.

Pound animals are a helpful supplementary source at a time when most counties in the state have prohibited pound sales to laboratories. The policy recognizes that, instead of being put to death, the animals can serve usefully in bringing new hope through research on the frontiers of modern medicine.