Reasons to Reduce Surplus Animals in Research (in Switzerland) – Or Why the Killing and Death of Animals and Potentially Standard Husbandry Conditions Should be Classified as Harms

Abstract

In Switzerland, approximately 1.2 million animals are used annually for scientific purposes. This number includes animals directly involved in experiments as well as those excluded due to factors like genotype, sex, or age —so-called “surplus animals”. While ethical debates in animal research have focused largely on the pain and suffering caused by procedures such as surgeries or injections, much less attention has been paid to moral issues raised bysurplus  animals.  These  animals  are typically  housed  under  standard  laboratory  conditions and  killed  when deemed unnecessary. Although the Swiss Animal Welfare Act aims to protect the dignity and welfare of all sentient animals, standardhousing conditions and the killing by (legally) accepted methods are not considered a harm.In this paper, we argue that this oversight leads to an underestimation of the harms involved in animal research. We make three claims: (i) the death of research animals — whether used in experiments or not — should be recognized as a non-sentientist harm; (ii) since standard killing methods often cause pain or distress, the killing of (surplus) animals should be considered a sentientist harm; and (iii) standard housing conditions in research facilities frustrate animal interests and potentially negatively impact animal welfare and thus should be reassessed with regards to their potential sentientist and non-sentientist harms. Since surplus animals are affected by various harms, moral and legal consideration should be given to their housing and killing in research.