Using animals in teaching: APS position statement and rationale.

The 2004 APS Position Statement on the Use of Animals in Teaching evolved following more than two years of discussions within the Council, the Animal Care and Experimentation Committee, the Education Committee, and the Editorial Board of the journal, Advances in Physiology Education. Position statements are, by definition, brief, and typically do not capture the detailed analysis and discussion of the complex issues that they summarize. Therefore, it is important to provide additional information to help orient the reader to the discussion that shaped the position statement. Toward that end, the APS is providing two background information pieces. The first is a historical perspectives review on the use of animals in teaching laboratories by APS Public Affairs Officer, Alice Ra’anan, available in the September 2005 issue of Advances in Physiology Education (8). The second is an educational rationale for the use of animal laboratories in the larger context of student laboratories.