How To Do Animal Rights. Experimental (Laboratory) Animal Statistics

How to Do Animal Rights - & Win the War on Animals

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8. Experimental Animals

How to Do Animal Rights - and Win the War on Animals

Chapter 7

Animal Numbers Raised & Killed

8. Experimental Animals

Estimates for the number of experimental or laboratory animals are rough because some countries keep incomplete or no records. The United States for example does not count certain animals, many of them rats and mice. Some reports state that the US uses 18 million to 23 million animals per year.

Britain may keep more reliable and detailed data than any other country on numbers, species and the purpose experimental animals are put to and some of these details are summarised below. Britain is said to have the most stringent laws concerning laboratory animals. However, this strength is only relative to other countries.

Table 1. Number of Experimental (Laboratory) Animals

Various estimates of the total number of animals people use for experimental purposes range between 40 million and 100 million animals.

Japan and United States use more experimental animals than all other countries combined.

Six countries using the largest numbers of experimental animals are Japan, United States, Britain, Canada, France and Germany.

These six countries combined use around half the experimental animals worldwide.

Table 1. Number of Experimental (Laboratory) Animals. The Six Highest-using Countries & Worldwide, for 2000.
Japan	12,000,000+
United States	12,000,000+
Britain	2 - 3,000,000
Canada	2 - 3,000,000
France	2 - 3,000,000
Germany	2 - 3,000,000
Worldwide	40,000,000 to 100,000,000

Table 2. Number and Kind of Experimental Animals in Britain

Over 2.6 million animals are used as experimental animals in Britain annually.

Of these animals 80 per cent are rodents, ten per cent are fish, five per cent are birds, three per cent are mammals and less than one per cent are reptiles and amphibians.

Table 2. Number and Kind of Experimental Animals in Britain in 2000
Kind of Animal	Number of Animals	Percentage of Total
Mice	1,605,722	60
Rats	524,168	20
Other rodents (eg hamsters & guinea-pigs)	69,799	3
Rabbits	27,389	1
Cats	613	< 0.1
Dogs	4,745	< 1
Ferrets	1,358	< 0.1
Other carnivores	663	< 0.1
Horses & donkeys	452	< 0.1
Pigs	8,326	< 1
Goats	325	< 0.1
Sheep	16,078	< 1
Cattle	6,801	< 1
Deer	160	< 0.1
Primates (eg macaques & marmosets)	2,951	< 1
Other mammals	457	< 0.1
Birds	120,505	4
Reptiles	63	< 0.1
Amphibians	9,661	< 1
Fish	242,757	9
Total	2,642,993	100

Source: Statistics of Scientific Procedures 1987-00. Home Office.

Table 3. Number of Procedures on Experimental Animals in Britain

Experimenters in Britain annually carry out over 2.7 million experiments (procedures) on animals (taking 2000 as a typical year).

The table shows the annual number of procedures by main purpose, a procedure being a single experiment on one animal. The total number of experiments (ie procedures) in the table is more than the total number of experimental animals (in Table 2) because the same animal can be used more than once. Animals are no longer used in Britain for testing cosmetics ingredients, finished products, or alcohol and tobacco products, and the use of chimpanzees, gorillas and orang-utans was banned. Over five million experimental animals were used per year in Britain in the mid-1970's. The number dropped to 2.7 million in 1996 and has stayed around that figure since.

Table 3. Number of Procedures on Experimental Animals in Britain in 2000.
Main Purpose	Number of Procedures	Percentage
Medicine	929,700	34
Research	872,800	32
Breeding	699,600	26
Toxicity testing	161,200	6
Education & Other	51,400	2
Total	2,714,700	100

Source: Statistics of Scientific Procedures 1987-00. Home Office.