2025-2026 LAS Chris Van Ginneken & Debby Van Dam
LABORATORY ANIMAL SCIENCES
HISTORY AND ETHICS
HISTORY
• Prehistory:
o Aristoteles (384-322 BC) à there are ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ beings (scala naturae, so beings
that are higher on stairs are more important)
o Plutarchus (46-120): the ‘lower beings’ (animals) cannot be used without ethical concerns
(also vegetarism)
o Galenus (129-216) studied the bodies of monkeys & pigs to learn about the
physiology/anatomy of humans: he used animals still alive (restraining them) since there was
a taboo on using human bodies.
• Middle Ages:
o Agustinus Hippo (354-430) à there is a ‘stand-still’ in science since Christianity comes up.
This adds Jesus and God to the staircase model. In Christianity it is made clear that the
animals are on earth to serve the humans, thus are less than the humans. So, there were no
rules for animal welfare.
• Renaisssance:
o 14th – 16th century: Revival en critical view on the ancient times.
o Vesalius (1514-1564) used human bodies for human anatomy (this way he could compare
this to the pigs Galenus used) and Van Leeuwen invented the microscope. There is now a
different view on the position of man, still the man stands above the animal. More
questioning about religions starts to come up.
• Age of enlightment (17th – 18th century) where rational thought, science and progress start to play
an important role
o Descartes (1596-1650) comes up with “Je pense donc je suis”, so in his opinion, only beings
who are able to reason are worthy. Since animals cannot reason, we can use animals for
experiments.
o Halen measured the blood pressure in a conscious horse (restrained the horse)
o But there was also the introduction of the law where an animal could be seen as private
property (pet) à so this can be seen as a first step in the acknowledgement that animals are
worthy, since with this law also some duties and restrictions were put upon the use of pets.
But these did not count for animals without an owner, these were often slaughtered for their
meat or because they caused too much noise
o In Hogarth (1715 ) defined the 4 stages of cruelty:
1) As a child he was picking dogs/pigs/cats
2) He drove a carriage with horses, and when a horse got tired beat it
3) He killed his girlfriend for jewelry
4) All the cruelty he did, was opposed on him
à Hogarth’s message = have respect for other living beings
o Bentham (1748 – 1832 ) said that it is not the ability of reasoning (what Descartes claimed at
start of the age of benightment) but the amount of suffering that can determine whether an
animal should be used for an experiment or not.
1
,2025-2026 LAS Chris Van Ginneken & Debby Van Dam
o Emmanuel Kant (1742 – 1804) states that the beings that have a higher ability to reason
should take responsibility for the beings that have a lesser ability to reason (actions are
morally right if it follows a moral rule or duty, regardless of the outcome = deontology) à so
an animal is worth less than a human, but a humans dignity is judged bases on the way he
treats animals. Reasoning is the key that decides what has dignity and what does not à if no
dignity or intrinsic value, it may be used à humans have absolute worth (absolute dignity)
since they are rational, animals only have relative worth. He also stated that higher animals
must be changed for lower animals where possible in the experiment à this is now one of
the three R’s (replacement)
o Bentham & Mill (1748 – 1932) agreed that all beings that can suffer = sentient beings. They
agree to only use animals as experiments when the consequences for man (benefit for man)
exceeds the suffering of animal = utilism
• Modern times:
o Charles Darwin states that man come from animals (as opposed to Christianity that stated
that animals were placed on earth to serve man, or Aristoteles that stated that there was a
scala naturae)
o Claude Bernard (1813-1878) founded animal experiment: the first to add control groups to
his experiments. However, he still used dissections and even sold tickets for people to watch
the dissections = people got upset because show-cased these dissections
o In 1846 there is the discovery of anesthesia J
o 1867: UK introduces ‘Cruelty against animals act 1867’ à it was forbidden to be cruel to
animals!
à Researchers are prosecuted for cruelty, however, not if the experiment is necessary to
prolong or save human life
à The animal must be anaesthetized (anesthesia was still not working very well then
à The animal must be killed as soon as the study is over
à The act was only applicable for vertebrates!!!
o Meanwhile there are no changes in Belgium: there is still much influence from Christianity
where the Paus still states that animals are here to serve man
o Pasteur (1750-1950): looks at rabbits to study Rabies. He made the humane endpoint: if
animal suffers too much, you must take it out of experiment, either by killing it or treating it.
He also mentioned to not use pest animals in experiments since they can spread disease.
o The brown dog affair (1903-1910): political controversy about vivisection. Swedish feminists
infiltrated a lecture in the London university where William Bayliss was performing a
dissection of a brown terrier dog in front of 60 medical students. Bayliss claims the dog was
properly anesthetized, but the Swedish feminists claim that they saw the dog struggling. This
led to a libel trial at the Royal Courts and the establishment of a Royal Commission to
investigate the use of animals in experiments and the statue of the dog. The national anti-
vivisection society condemned the procedure as cruel and unlawful. William Bayliss
discovered hormones, and his reputation was detrimental due to the assaults, he sued for
libel and won.
2
,2025-2026 LAS Chris Van Ginneken & Debby Van Dam
o 1954: Universities Federation for Animal Welfare decided to sponsor systematic research on
the progress of the humane techniques in laboratories. Thay sponsored Russel and Burches
research:
o Russel and Burch (1959) introduced the principle of the three R’s
1. Replacement = before starting your animal experiment you must think of a possible
replacement: that do not include animals (in vitro or in silico) or invertebrate models
or embryonic/ larval forms
2. Refinement = if you still need animals, you must refine the tests: make sure the
animals suffer as less as possible (e.g. use anesthetics, give them a nice cage, use in
vivo imaging…)
3. Reduction = use as less animals as possible and consider the re-use of animals.
Report negative data, so the experiment is not repeated again!
o Possible 4th R: respect!
o There are always people against the use of animals in experiments:
§ Tom Regan = animal right activist à states that you cannot use animals since you
cannot touch upon the animals right of living
§ There is an important difference with animal welfare activists: these state that you
may use animals, but you should treat them humanely and not let them suffer
unnecessarily à Peter Singer = speciesism = humans and animals must suffer
equally, we cannot make mice suffer more, but he is a utilitarian: one should give
priority to relieve the greater suffering.
o 1986: Belgian Law on animal welfare is based on the European directive (= 100 years later
than UK)
§ Mentions laboratory animals: it explicitly recognizes laboratory animals as a distinct
category
§ Mentions animal experiment: defined as an animal used for scientific research/
education or training/ testing of substances
§ Registration
§ 4 KB’s (Koninklijke besluiten/Royal Decrees)
o 2010: a new European directive refinement is made
o Only in 2013: implementation of new European directive in a new KB
§ The implementation of an ethical committee is mandatory
o In 2014: Belgium splits the directive for Wallonia and Flander
o Where do we stand now?
§ Animals use has decreased
§ Most used are rodents, then fish and then birds
§ Animals are mostly used in applied & fundamental research
3
, 2025-2026 LAS Chris Van Ginneken & Debby Van Dam
LEGISLATION (PART 1)
LEGISLATION
• There are 2 forms in which the legislation regarding animal welfare is noted:
o EU directive 2010/63/EU (changed EU directive of 1986/609/EEG)
o Belgium legislation à this implements guidelines that are described in the EU directive à
these are implemented in the Belgian law as Royal Decree (Koninklijke besluiten/KB)
§ The first directive of 1986, led to the KB in 1993, which was then replaced by a new
one in 2013 based on the new EU directives of 2010
• Laws are quite broad à we need more details to put it into practice: written
down in the decree
§ In 2014 Belgium split up the legislation from a federal level to a regional level:
Wallonia, Brussels and Flanders.
§ Since then, we do not speak of Royal Decrees (from federal level, before 2013) but of
Decree’s
§ The first Belgian legislation for animal welfare was in 1986: not only for laboratory
animals, but also for other animals like farm animals and pets à In the first KB there
are annexes for laboratory animals: what animals to protect and what animals are
forbidden to use
• So, all together: The protection of laboratory animals in Belgium/Flanders is basically ensured by the
Animal Welfare Law 1986 concerning the protection and welfare of animals and the Royal Decree of
1993 is replaced by the Royal Decree of 2013 concerning the protection of laboratory animals. For
each regional level, there are Decrees since 2014.
• 2024: Belgische grondwet/Constitution states that animals are sentient beings, and their welfare
should be protected à ALL laws/decrees should now comply with this constitution = fundamental!
ANIMAL WELFARE LAW (1986)
MENTIONS LABORATORY ANIMALS
• Here is described ‘What is a laboratory animal?’
1. Living cephalopods (= inktvissen) used or intended for use in animal experiment, or which are
specifically kept so that their organs/tissues can be used for laboratory purposes
2. The living non-human vertebrates used or intended for use in animal experiments, or which are
kept specifically so that their organs or tissues may be used for scientific purposes, including their
self-feeding larval form, or a fetal form of a mammals that has entered the last third of their
normal development (= last third of gestation)
3. If the experiment is performed on fetus before last third of their normal development, but the
animal survives beyond the last third of their development, and they are in danger of suffering
pain, distress or lasting harm as a result of the animal experiment performed, they are also
considered a lab-animal à e.g. if you perform surgery in utero, and you let foetus grow and be
born = lab animal
• Some examples
o E.g. fruit fly is not a lab animal since it is not a vertebrate
o E.g. zebrafish self-feeding stage is at day 5: a zebrafish used before day 5 it is not a lab-
animal
4
LABORATORY ANIMAL SCIENCES
HISTORY AND ETHICS
HISTORY
• Prehistory:
o Aristoteles (384-322 BC) à there are ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ beings (scala naturae, so beings
that are higher on stairs are more important)
o Plutarchus (46-120): the ‘lower beings’ (animals) cannot be used without ethical concerns
(also vegetarism)
o Galenus (129-216) studied the bodies of monkeys & pigs to learn about the
physiology/anatomy of humans: he used animals still alive (restraining them) since there was
a taboo on using human bodies.
• Middle Ages:
o Agustinus Hippo (354-430) à there is a ‘stand-still’ in science since Christianity comes up.
This adds Jesus and God to the staircase model. In Christianity it is made clear that the
animals are on earth to serve the humans, thus are less than the humans. So, there were no
rules for animal welfare.
• Renaisssance:
o 14th – 16th century: Revival en critical view on the ancient times.
o Vesalius (1514-1564) used human bodies for human anatomy (this way he could compare
this to the pigs Galenus used) and Van Leeuwen invented the microscope. There is now a
different view on the position of man, still the man stands above the animal. More
questioning about religions starts to come up.
• Age of enlightment (17th – 18th century) where rational thought, science and progress start to play
an important role
o Descartes (1596-1650) comes up with “Je pense donc je suis”, so in his opinion, only beings
who are able to reason are worthy. Since animals cannot reason, we can use animals for
experiments.
o Halen measured the blood pressure in a conscious horse (restrained the horse)
o But there was also the introduction of the law where an animal could be seen as private
property (pet) à so this can be seen as a first step in the acknowledgement that animals are
worthy, since with this law also some duties and restrictions were put upon the use of pets.
But these did not count for animals without an owner, these were often slaughtered for their
meat or because they caused too much noise
o In Hogarth (1715 ) defined the 4 stages of cruelty:
1) As a child he was picking dogs/pigs/cats
2) He drove a carriage with horses, and when a horse got tired beat it
3) He killed his girlfriend for jewelry
4) All the cruelty he did, was opposed on him
à Hogarth’s message = have respect for other living beings
o Bentham (1748 – 1832 ) said that it is not the ability of reasoning (what Descartes claimed at
start of the age of benightment) but the amount of suffering that can determine whether an
animal should be used for an experiment or not.
1
,2025-2026 LAS Chris Van Ginneken & Debby Van Dam
o Emmanuel Kant (1742 – 1804) states that the beings that have a higher ability to reason
should take responsibility for the beings that have a lesser ability to reason (actions are
morally right if it follows a moral rule or duty, regardless of the outcome = deontology) à so
an animal is worth less than a human, but a humans dignity is judged bases on the way he
treats animals. Reasoning is the key that decides what has dignity and what does not à if no
dignity or intrinsic value, it may be used à humans have absolute worth (absolute dignity)
since they are rational, animals only have relative worth. He also stated that higher animals
must be changed for lower animals where possible in the experiment à this is now one of
the three R’s (replacement)
o Bentham & Mill (1748 – 1932) agreed that all beings that can suffer = sentient beings. They
agree to only use animals as experiments when the consequences for man (benefit for man)
exceeds the suffering of animal = utilism
• Modern times:
o Charles Darwin states that man come from animals (as opposed to Christianity that stated
that animals were placed on earth to serve man, or Aristoteles that stated that there was a
scala naturae)
o Claude Bernard (1813-1878) founded animal experiment: the first to add control groups to
his experiments. However, he still used dissections and even sold tickets for people to watch
the dissections = people got upset because show-cased these dissections
o In 1846 there is the discovery of anesthesia J
o 1867: UK introduces ‘Cruelty against animals act 1867’ à it was forbidden to be cruel to
animals!
à Researchers are prosecuted for cruelty, however, not if the experiment is necessary to
prolong or save human life
à The animal must be anaesthetized (anesthesia was still not working very well then
à The animal must be killed as soon as the study is over
à The act was only applicable for vertebrates!!!
o Meanwhile there are no changes in Belgium: there is still much influence from Christianity
where the Paus still states that animals are here to serve man
o Pasteur (1750-1950): looks at rabbits to study Rabies. He made the humane endpoint: if
animal suffers too much, you must take it out of experiment, either by killing it or treating it.
He also mentioned to not use pest animals in experiments since they can spread disease.
o The brown dog affair (1903-1910): political controversy about vivisection. Swedish feminists
infiltrated a lecture in the London university where William Bayliss was performing a
dissection of a brown terrier dog in front of 60 medical students. Bayliss claims the dog was
properly anesthetized, but the Swedish feminists claim that they saw the dog struggling. This
led to a libel trial at the Royal Courts and the establishment of a Royal Commission to
investigate the use of animals in experiments and the statue of the dog. The national anti-
vivisection society condemned the procedure as cruel and unlawful. William Bayliss
discovered hormones, and his reputation was detrimental due to the assaults, he sued for
libel and won.
2
,2025-2026 LAS Chris Van Ginneken & Debby Van Dam
o 1954: Universities Federation for Animal Welfare decided to sponsor systematic research on
the progress of the humane techniques in laboratories. Thay sponsored Russel and Burches
research:
o Russel and Burch (1959) introduced the principle of the three R’s
1. Replacement = before starting your animal experiment you must think of a possible
replacement: that do not include animals (in vitro or in silico) or invertebrate models
or embryonic/ larval forms
2. Refinement = if you still need animals, you must refine the tests: make sure the
animals suffer as less as possible (e.g. use anesthetics, give them a nice cage, use in
vivo imaging…)
3. Reduction = use as less animals as possible and consider the re-use of animals.
Report negative data, so the experiment is not repeated again!
o Possible 4th R: respect!
o There are always people against the use of animals in experiments:
§ Tom Regan = animal right activist à states that you cannot use animals since you
cannot touch upon the animals right of living
§ There is an important difference with animal welfare activists: these state that you
may use animals, but you should treat them humanely and not let them suffer
unnecessarily à Peter Singer = speciesism = humans and animals must suffer
equally, we cannot make mice suffer more, but he is a utilitarian: one should give
priority to relieve the greater suffering.
o 1986: Belgian Law on animal welfare is based on the European directive (= 100 years later
than UK)
§ Mentions laboratory animals: it explicitly recognizes laboratory animals as a distinct
category
§ Mentions animal experiment: defined as an animal used for scientific research/
education or training/ testing of substances
§ Registration
§ 4 KB’s (Koninklijke besluiten/Royal Decrees)
o 2010: a new European directive refinement is made
o Only in 2013: implementation of new European directive in a new KB
§ The implementation of an ethical committee is mandatory
o In 2014: Belgium splits the directive for Wallonia and Flander
o Where do we stand now?
§ Animals use has decreased
§ Most used are rodents, then fish and then birds
§ Animals are mostly used in applied & fundamental research
3
, 2025-2026 LAS Chris Van Ginneken & Debby Van Dam
LEGISLATION (PART 1)
LEGISLATION
• There are 2 forms in which the legislation regarding animal welfare is noted:
o EU directive 2010/63/EU (changed EU directive of 1986/609/EEG)
o Belgium legislation à this implements guidelines that are described in the EU directive à
these are implemented in the Belgian law as Royal Decree (Koninklijke besluiten/KB)
§ The first directive of 1986, led to the KB in 1993, which was then replaced by a new
one in 2013 based on the new EU directives of 2010
• Laws are quite broad à we need more details to put it into practice: written
down in the decree
§ In 2014 Belgium split up the legislation from a federal level to a regional level:
Wallonia, Brussels and Flanders.
§ Since then, we do not speak of Royal Decrees (from federal level, before 2013) but of
Decree’s
§ The first Belgian legislation for animal welfare was in 1986: not only for laboratory
animals, but also for other animals like farm animals and pets à In the first KB there
are annexes for laboratory animals: what animals to protect and what animals are
forbidden to use
• So, all together: The protection of laboratory animals in Belgium/Flanders is basically ensured by the
Animal Welfare Law 1986 concerning the protection and welfare of animals and the Royal Decree of
1993 is replaced by the Royal Decree of 2013 concerning the protection of laboratory animals. For
each regional level, there are Decrees since 2014.
• 2024: Belgische grondwet/Constitution states that animals are sentient beings, and their welfare
should be protected à ALL laws/decrees should now comply with this constitution = fundamental!
ANIMAL WELFARE LAW (1986)
MENTIONS LABORATORY ANIMALS
• Here is described ‘What is a laboratory animal?’
1. Living cephalopods (= inktvissen) used or intended for use in animal experiment, or which are
specifically kept so that their organs/tissues can be used for laboratory purposes
2. The living non-human vertebrates used or intended for use in animal experiments, or which are
kept specifically so that their organs or tissues may be used for scientific purposes, including their
self-feeding larval form, or a fetal form of a mammals that has entered the last third of their
normal development (= last third of gestation)
3. If the experiment is performed on fetus before last third of their normal development, but the
animal survives beyond the last third of their development, and they are in danger of suffering
pain, distress or lasting harm as a result of the animal experiment performed, they are also
considered a lab-animal à e.g. if you perform surgery in utero, and you let foetus grow and be
born = lab animal
• Some examples
o E.g. fruit fly is not a lab animal since it is not a vertebrate
o E.g. zebrafish self-feeding stage is at day 5: a zebrafish used before day 5 it is not a lab-
animal
4
