The Swiss call this “re-homing”, “re-domiciliation”: it is a question of offering individuals the possibility of adopting a laboratory rat as a pet, when they reach the age of retirement. Knowing that the life expectancy of a rat is two to three years. In Switzerland, rats represent 9% of the animals used in clinical trials, behind mice and fish. Most experiments include euthanasia, since they are often followed by the removal of tissues or organs, but fortunately this is not always the case. Switzerland therefore wishes to develop the adoption of these guinea pigs, with the exception of genetically modified animals.
In France, more than 1.5 million animals are used in the laboratory each year for drug trials or behavioral research: more than 60% of these are mice, followed by rats, rabbits, fish. Primates, dogs and cats account for less than 1% of uses. But there is also an association, the Grail, which works to place these animals in shelters or with families when they retire. This association of volunteers has helped rehabilitate 5,800 laboratory animals since 2004 (mice, cats, dogs, rabbits, horses, pigs, etc.). You should also know that a zoo-refuge, La Tanière, located near Chartres, in Eure-et-Loir, also collects laboratory animals, in particular primates or cows.
Obviously the use of animals for experimental purposes is highly regulated. The tendency is nevertheless to imitate its use. Animal experimentation is regulated by law and any request is subject to the prior approval of an ethics committee.
The researchers must then submit a file of around forty pages to explain why their work cannot be carried out using methods other than animal testing: why, for example, is it not possible to have recourse to tissue banks, or to cell cultures, or to computer models, so many alternative techniques, which are being developed precisely to limit animal experimentation to what is strictly necessary.