This module of the IACUC training program covers applied ethics and delves into the factors that impact research animals and therefore research, teaching and testing outcomes. The module content can be accessed through the links located on the left side of each page in the training program.

The purpose of this module is not to convince you that animals should be used in research, teaching, and diagnostics but to stimulate discussion and thought about how we use animals. If you are taking this web-based course, you are presumably involved or plan to be involved in some protocol or project that uses animals. Therefore, you already recognize the importance of animal use at some level (hopefully not too narrow!). It is absolutely critical for individuals who use animals for one or more purposes to give some thought to how animals are used in general and to guard against hypocrisy in your personal feelings toward animal use. For example, it is alarmingly common for people working in biomedical research to view aspects of wildlife management or wildlife research with some disdain. In their mind, the idea of placing a cannula into a rat's brain is justifiable since the intent is to advance medical knowledge yet trapping a marten in a leghold trap for a mark-recapture study might be considered cruel. Likewise, it is equally common for individuals conducting wildlife research to consider some procedures used in biomedical research as barbaric. It depends entirely upon your personal experience, how you justify your own animal use, and whether or not you believe the propaganda published about animal cruelty and abuse - which includes a lot of misinformation! For most of us, we are well aware that the "animal rights" portrayal of our own use of animals is incorrect. Therefore, it is safe to assume that ALL their reports and so-called "fact" sheets are incorrect.

If you are accessing this page through Blackboard, you will find the required test for Module 1 under the Assignments link. You must answer at least 23 of the 25 questions correctly in order to successfully complete this module. However, you may take the test as many times as necessary; only the most recent score is saved in Blackboard so do not reopen the quiz once you have achieved a passing score.