Directive 86/609

In the late 1970’s the Council of Europe started preparing a convention on the use of animals in experiments, setting out a basic scheme of regulation. This was eventually adopted in 1986 as the European Convention for the protection of vertebrate animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes (ETS 123).

However, the preparatory work of the Council of Europe raised the political profile of the issue within Europe to the point where the European Commission decided that, rather than relying on the ‘soft’ legislation provided by a Council of Europe convention; animal experimentation should be regulated by ‘hard’ legislation.

Member States of the Council of Europe are under no obligation to obey conventions, but they can chose to do so by ratifying them. Hence conventions are considered to be ‘soft’ legislation. EU directives, on the other hand, have to be implemented by Member States and are thus considered to be ‘hard’ European legislation. The text of Convention ETS 123 was transposed, with a few minor omissions and alterations, and adopted as the Directive of 24 November 1986 on the approximation of laws, regulations and administrative provisions of the member states regarding the protection of animals used for experimental and other scientific purposes (86/609/EEC).

The directive defines of the types of animals and procedures covered by the regulations and sets out a minimum set of regulatory controls on animal experimentation which includes the following requirements:

Controls on the care and accommodation of laboratory animals, including detailed guidelines
Avoiding distress and unnecessary pain and suffering to the experimental animals
Not to use animals if alternatives are available
To use anaesthesia wherever possible and appropriate
To give advance notice to the appropriate authority about the experiments or the persons conducting the experiments
That the people conducting the experiments and those caring for the animals have appropriate training
That establishments carrying out experiments and establishments breeding or supplying laboratory animals should be registered or approved by the appropriate authority
That a veterinarian or other competent person shall advise on the well-being of laboratory animals
That the animals used shall be specifically bred for use in experiments, with exceptions for the lesser-used species.
That records should be kept of the animals used and this information should be collected and reported to the european commission at regular intervals

The legal basis for this directive in the Treaty of Rome meant that it could only apply to animal experimentation conducted for commercial purposes and not to academic research. Accordingly, when Directive 86/609 was adopted, a resolution also adopted in which the Member States agreed to apply similar controls to all types of animal experimentation.