Abstract
Working with laboratory animals remains challenging as societal perspectives remain critically divided on whether, why and how animals should be used in research. While recent surveys seem to indicate that most of the public may be supportive of some animal research, it is critical that non-animal alternatives are used and further developed. 1 Furthermore, it is expected that if animals must be used, it is essential that this is done ensuring best care and wellbeing support for the animals.2,3 Such a scenario continues to spark important debates, for example with the ongoing social movement in favour of or against the use of animals for vaccine development 4 or antibody production. 5
Clearly, openness and communication remain at the core of what we do as laboratory animal professionals. We hold not only a professional, but also a personal, responsibility to promote transparency on the use of laboratory animals in accordance with the 3Rs (replacement, reduction and refinement), and on how we thrive to ensure their best care and welfare. Our community is already actively involved with outreach and public engagement activities, as was clearly highlighted at the recent Federation of European Laboratory Animal Science Associations (FELASA) 2022 meeting with a focus on communication. Indeed, we all hold an important commitment to the public, as main stakeholders, to openly communicate about what we do and to support a constructive and balanced debate on how we can progress towards a non-animal testing scenario in the future. Such debate remains challenging but important.
Public opinion matters, and it is important that a voice is also given to the younger generation, which, sooner than we think, will be drivers of new scientific discoveries as well as future decision makers. Despite the complex nature of the ethical discussion around the use of animals in research, it is important that young people are supported to develop their own opinions on this subject. To this aim, it is critical that our engagement activities do not fear to bring to schools such complex ethical challenging discussions on whether animals should be used for research or not, and if so, under which circumstances. The sooner that we can share resources on key concepts such as animal welfare and sentience, non-animal alternatives and humane care, all aligned under the 3Rs principles as the main ethos of our work, the better prepared our young minds will be to develop their own opinion.
Recently, to bring the 3Rs principle to the young audience, the Swiss 3R Competence Centre (3RCC) teamed up with Dr David Pamies, a passionate researcher from the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), to create outreach events for schoolchildren and their teachers. Introducing children to animal experimentation and 3Rs is not a simple task. Thus, the centre partnered with the European SchoolNet and the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) to deliver a workshop aimed at teaching schoolteachers on how to educate students on the 3Rs principle. This workshop was held online on 9 March 2022 with nearly 30 European participants, including teachers from the International School of Lausanne, Switzerland. Teachers were presented some background knowledge on the 3Rs and the JRC presented some of the educational activities and learning scenarios that would help teachers educate students on the topic. The overall workshop was very much appreciated and paved the ground to set up the main engagement activity with the schools.
The team also paired with the journal Frontiers for Young Minds, an open-access journal publishing articles written by scientists and reviewed by kids and teens. Three international scientists in the 3Rs field contributed with a manuscript addressing one of the 3Rs; each manuscript was reviewed by the children from the International School of Lausanne, under the supervision of a 3RCC mentor. To prepare the pupils on peer-reviewing manuscripts on 3Rs, a one-day event was organized on 23 May 2022 during which the scientists each presented their respective 3R topic and gave the students the occasion to practise their reviewing abilities orally, in the format of an interview.
The event was filmed (please see the link below), and the resulting production was disseminated on Frontiers’ and the Swiss 3RCC’s YouTube and website channels on the day of the release of the three articles.6–8 This will be provided later in German, French and Italian by the Swiss 3RCC. The campaign was a success, with more than 12 million impressions on social media until now. The whole programme thus calls for the reiteration of such an education scheme across other schools in Switzerland and beyond.
The Laboratory Animals Journal Editors-in-Chief team was honoured to participate with two members in this incredible engagement activity. The power of openness and communication can be truly felt through the video, encompassing the vibrant and beautifully engaging interactions between the pupils, the educators and the scientists. There is no doubt that we must continue such thriving engagement activities; the young minds hold the key to our future and the sooner we engage them in complex but hugely relevant discussions on animal research and the progress towards alternative methods, the better we all will grow as a scientific community. Young minds, sooner rather than later, will lead such progress!
Watch the video of the event in Lausanne: https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=j-w76Vy8sLA
Educational event around 3Rs for young minds. Lectures from (a) Thomas Hartung, (b) Jordi Tremoleda and (c) Paulin Jirkof at the University of Lausanne. Pupils (d) exploring various experimental situations (e.g. mouse brain sections, flies (Drosophila melanogaster), worms (Caenorhabditis elegans), human cells in a petri dish) and (e) being presented with games to challenge their reflections around alternatives to animal testing with the support of altertox and (f) Alexandre Widmer (EPFL) presenting to students the concept of non-aversive animal handling with tunnels.