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Laboratory Animals People use laboratory animals for research, toxicity testing and education in institutes around the world. Ultimately people use them for animal experimentation. Estimates for the annually worldwide total number of laboratory animals vary from 41 million to 100 million. The six countries using the largest numbers of laboratory animals are: Table 1. Number of Laboratory Animals. Numbers in the six highest-using countries and 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 41,000,000 to 100,000,000   The above six counties combined carry out around half the experiments on animals worldwide. Estimates 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 each year. Laboratory Animals in Britain Britain is said to have the most stringent laws concerning laboratory animals. This strength is only relative to other countries, however. Britain may also keep more reliable and detailed data than any other country on numbers, species and the purpose laboratory animals are put to. See Tables 2 & 3, below. Table 2. Number and Kind of Laboratory 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 2 shows that over 2.6 million animals are used in laboratories in Britain annually: eighty per cent rodents, ten per cent fish, five per cent birds, three per cent mammals and less than one per cent reptiles and amphibians. Table 3 shows the annual number of procedures on laboratory animals in Britain in 2000 by main purpose. A procedure is a single experiment on one animal. The total number of procedures in the table is more than the total number of animals because the same animal may be used more than once. Table 3. Number of Procedures on Laboratory 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. 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 is now banned. Experimenters in the United States and Britain say the number of procedures is falling. In Britain in the mid 1970's over five million laboratory animals were used per year. The number dropped to 2.7 million in 1996, but has stayed around that figure since then. Also see Animal Experimentation and Three R's. © 2004 Roger Panaman All rights reserved