A prominent standard-setting group for animal care is struggling to stay neutral in the increasingly testy fight over whether the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) should regulate the use of laboratory rats, mice, and birds, which constitute 95% of research animals.
Two years ago, the Association for Assessment and Accreditation of Laboratory Animal Care (AAALAC), which sets voluntary standards that are widely used by major U.S. research universities, gave its qualified support for USDA regulation, heartening animal rights activists. The activists then cited AAALAC's statement in responding to research community claims that regulation would be too onerous. But AAALAC chief John Miller now suggests that the activists stop mentioning his group: "AAALAC is neutral on this issue," he told Science.
In a clarification last month, Miller noted that the statement never won the support of AAALAC's entire board, which includes 50-odd major science societies, some of which have opposed regulation. Instead, board members opted to take their own positions on possible new rules, which a congressional moratorium has put on hold for at least a year.
