Living Conditions

"The lack of ethical self-examination is common and generally involves the denial or avoidance of animal suffering, resulting in the dehumanization of researchers and the ethical degradation of their research subjects."
John P. Gluck; Ethics and Behavior, Vol. 1, 1991

For the purpose of animal testing, animals are kept in labarotories where scientists can moniter their reactions and changes to products. The animals who are tested are put in wire cages with other animals like them, sometimes many small animals are put together in one small cage. These type of living conditions are not healthy for animals and can cause distress to the animals being tested on, resulting in false results. Larger animals are kept in similiar wire cages with newspaper and a container of water to drink from. While scientists usually offer proper lighting and temperature settings in the rooms animals are kept in, the lack of a structured environment within cages can alter the behavior of the animals enclosed. While the cages offer the bare minimum that an animal needs to survive, it does not offer exercise wheels, shelves, or toys which animals use to interact with and maintain healthy. The lack of this type of environment which ranges from animal to animal, can cause increased levels of stress. When animals become stressed their levels of stress hormones increase, their sex hormones decrease, and their immune system begins to fail, compromising accuracy of test results. Many scientists say that the living conditions of animals "cancel out" and have nothing to do with test results, yet experiments have proven that results vary when compared to healthy animals. Another key factor of living conditions animals are kept under is noise level that occurs within the labs due to human activity. Sounds of constant closing and opening doors, carts, jingling keys, and machinery can affect the behavior of animals, especially rodents. Rodents are extremely sensitive to noise and are very affected, this causes them to change their behavior patterns and become more withdrawn. While scientists believe that the living conditions animals are placed in are a good method, they do not realize the effects this has on animals