Scientists favor wider AWA

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, September 1999:

Psychologists Scott Plous of Wesleyan
University and Harold Herzog of Western Carolina
University reported in the June 1999 edition of the
trade journal Lab Animal that among 494 members
of Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee
members who responded to survey questions about
the Animal Welfare Act circulated by Plous and
Herzog during the last third of 1998, no less than
97.6% favored the present level of protection––or
more––for primates, dogs, and cats.

The USDA is now reviewing an
American Anti-Vivisection Society petition asking
that AWA protection be extended to rats, mice,
and birds––a request which 73.3% of respondents
favored as regards rats and mice, and 69% favored
as regards pigeons, the only bird species that Plous
and Herzog asked about.
Farm animals also warrant AWA protection,
said 72.7%; 57.4% would extend the AWA to
cover reptiles; 53.2% would extend it to cover
frogs; and 50.9% would extend it to cover fish.