Workshop - The afterlife: Rehabilitation of laboratory animals

The afterlife: Rehabilitation of laboratory animals

Laboratory animals used in experiments today as part of basic or applied research used to be euthanized at the end of the research. However there is an alternative to euthanasia: rehabilitation, providing retirement. Aiming for the retirement animals is ethical, and can help to improve the reputation and acceptance of laboratory research on animals. In many countries retirement of lab animals is already a mainstream topic; for example in 2013 the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) decided to retire a large group of chimpanzees used in research to a public sanctuary.

In France there is no structure yet dedicated to the retirement of laboratory animals, and laboratory staff are not used to thinking about options for retirement. Only few researchers rehabilitate their laboratory subjects. A series of “Meetings on Animal Rehabilitation” is organized, inviting all actors involved in rehabilitation to present their experience and insights to research institutes, universities, ethics committees and policy-makers, and to discuss how to institute rehabilitation of lab animals in the research world.

For more information please see the event page or contact USIAS Fellow Dr Cédric Sueur, cedric.sueur [at] iphc.cnrs.fr.