Background

Mount Holyoke College assures that all vertebrate animals used in teaching and research are treated humanely following U.S. government regulations set forth in the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) (U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1992 ed. Chap.l Subchapter A-Animal Welfare. 9 Code of Federal Regulations, parts 1,2, and 3) and Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (PHS Policy) (U.S. Public Health Service, 1986;reprinted 1996), and the guidelines found in the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Guide) (Institute of Laboratory Animal Resources, Commission on Life Sciences, National Research Council, 1996). The AWA regulations and the PHS Policy mandate the establishment of an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) which reviews all vertebrate animal use proposals to ensure that investigators minimize their use of live animals and assures that any pain, distress, or other harm to laboratory animals is reduced to the minimum necessary to obtain valid scientific data.

Mount Holyoke College has an Assurance document (#A3618-01) on file with the Division of Assurances, Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare (OLAW).