Education in Alternatives to Animal Experimentation

Education in alternatives to animal experimentation has spread to all parts of the world including Asian countries (Kurosawa, 2004a). We should aim to educate all types of audience, from school children to professors and the general public, on the concepts and importance of the 3Rs (Kurosawa, 2004b; Cervinka and Kurosawa, 2004). Naturally, the approach must be specific to the target group: the approach to inform the general public must differ from the approach to postgraduate biomedical students. The first step of 3Rs education should be education on the reality of animal experimentation. If there were no animal experiments, we would not be here to discuss them at the 5th World Congress. We need to understand why animal experiments are still being carried out. And we need to realise and express why we believe animal welfare and the 3Rs are important.