Booker, Whitehouse Lead Colleagues in Urging HHS and NIH to Extend Humane Care Handling Standards to Cephalopods

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) urged the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to ensure that cephalopods, such as octopuses and squids, are afforded basic humane handling and care standards when they are used in NIH laboratory experiments.

“Cephalopods are increasingly being used in taxpayer-funded laboratory research across the country,” wrote Senators Booker and Whitehouse in a letter to HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra and NIH Acting Director Lawrence Tabak. “However, because they are currently not considered “animals” under the Public Health Service Policy, these incredibly intelligent creatures are not assured of basic humane treatment with no avenue for accountability over the justification of their use, the details of their use–such as methods of anesthesia or euthanasia–and other important research considerations.”

The Senators urged HHS and NIH to update the definition of “animal” to include cephalopods.

“A wealth of evidence from recent research demonstrates that cephalopods stand out from other invertebrates in terms of their intelligence and capacity for pain, two criteria historically used to justify humane treatment requirements in research,” the Senators continued. “The standards of care for these animals have changed, and the Public Health Service Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals should be updated accordingly.”

The Senators also urged HHS and NIH to update the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals to reflect proper care and handling of cephalopods in accordance with the scientific, consensus-based “Guidelines for Care and Welfare of Cephalopods in Research”.

“Backbone or not, cephalopods are animals,” said Catharine E. Krebs, PhD, medical research specialist with the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “It’s time to close the gap in policy that exempts these valuable, intelligent creatures from basic protections already afforded to vertebrates used in research. The Physicians Committee thanks Senators Booker and Whitehouse for leading the call to protect these animals.”

The letter was cosigned by Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Brian Schatz (D-HI).

The full text of the letter can be found here.