Animal Welfare Whistleblowers

If you have ever been a witness to any form of animal abuse, cruelty or a violation of the Animal Welfare Act that takes place in any research laboratory, you are faced with several options. The first would be to stay silent. If you do choose this path, then you can be sure that those cruel activities and violations of the Act will carry on unchecked and might even worsen. The second path that is available to you is to speak up and thus blow the whistle on such malpractices.

Historically, animal research has always been carried out behind the secrecy of closed doors. In turn the federal government has been relying on a policy of that entails institutional self-regulation in order to ensure the adherence to animal welfare laws and regulations. It is but obvious that, animals are incapable of speaking for themselves or advocating their cause. As a result, it is only possible through the acts of brave whistleblowers that such animal abuse has been exposed. A whistleblower can in fact bring to an end such atrocities that occur at animal research laboratories.

The actual act of blowing the whistle can occur in a variety of forms. This could range from reporting internally to an act of confidential whistle blowing with advocacy groups. It could even take the form of an extremely public statement regarding the wrongdoings. Various avenues are thus available to you for addressing animal abuse and Act violations in animal research laboratories.

An important one would be to report the abuse to the committee of Institutional Animal Care and Use. This is a body that by law is in existence at every research facility that utilizes animals. This is a committee that bears the responsibility of acting as the eyes and ears of the federal government. It functions to ensure complete compliance with all the animal welfare regulations and laws. If all else fails alerting the media is a good option to consider. Always remember animals need your intervention in such situations.