Policy and Regulations

A. Policy

Thiel College assumes ethical responsibility for animal use and care for all non-human vertebrates housed at any of its facilities and for the care and/or use of those animals in any testing protocols approved by the Thiel College Institutional Animal Care and Utilization Committee (IACUC) and conducted in any of its facilities. Thiel College provides appropriate oversight for the welfare of animals used in all research, educational, and training activities. The "ETHICAL USE OF LABORATORY ANIMALS" general policy statement provides specific guidance to our investigators and to visiting investigators.

We recognize that healthy laboratory animals maintained in a constant environment are essential to quality research. Our collective mission is to implement and support a program that achieves this goal. We also recognize that the use of animals in research is fully regulated at the federal, state, and local level and that compliance is necessary and will improve our research effort.  

B. Regulations

The following regulations are relevant to work with research animals:

• THE ANIMAL WELFARE ACT, as amended, is a federal law that protects all warm-blooded animals except mice, rats, and birds;
• THE GOOD LABORATORY PRACTICE ACT provides standards for working in the laboratory environment; and,
• The NRC "GUIDE FOR THE CARE AND USE OF LABORATORY ANIMALS" covers all vertebrate animals used in research. The document provides specific information about common laboratory animals and their care. Our animal care and use program is based on standards outlined in "THE GUIDE".