From an academic point of view the use of animals in education is primarily as tools to achieve learning objectives. The introduction of alternatives in education requires an appreciation of both the learning objectives of these animal experiments and the possibilities and limitations of alternatives. In the Netherlands, a government-funded project is in progress, with the aim of developing the use of alternatives to animal experiments in education The numbers of animals used for educational purposes was reduced by 40% in the period 1978–1988
This paper presents an overview of the objectives of the use of animals for experiments in education and of the alternatives currently available to academia.
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