Animal testing regulations in the United States come from a patchwork of federal statutes, agency rules, and institutional oversight requirements that together govern how roughly 775,000 covered animals are used in laboratories each year. The centerpiece is the Animal Welfare Act, which sets minimum care standards but excludes the most commonly used lab animals. Separate rules tied to federal research funding fill part of that gap, so the protection an animal receives depends on its species and on who is paying for the experiment. The framework is also shifting: a 2022 law removed the longstanding requirement that drug developers test on animals before seeking FDA approval, and the EPA has committed to eliminating mammalian testing by 2035.
The Animal Welfare Act
The Animal Welfare Act, codified at 7 U.S.C. ยง 2131 and the sections that follow, is the foundational federal law covering laboratory animals. It requires research facilities to meet standards for housing, sanitation, ventilation, and veterinary care for covered species. Facilities that buy, sell, or transport animals for research must register with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and keep detailed records.1GovInfo. 7 U.S.C. – Transportation, Sale, and Handling of Certain Animals
The Act also requires researchers to consider alternatives to procedures likely to cause pain or distress, and to use the fewest animals that will produce valid results. Facilities must document compliance in written protocols reviewed before any experiment begins.
Which Animals the Law Covers
The Animal Welfare Act defines “animal” in a way that leaves out most of the creatures actually living in U.S. labs. The statute covers dogs, cats, nonhuman primates, guinea pigs, hamsters, rabbits, and other warm-blooded animals the Secretary of Agriculture designates. It explicitly excludes birds, rats of the genus Rattus, and mice of the genus Mus when those animals were bred for use in research. It also excludes horses not used for research and farm animals used for food or fiber production.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 7 USC 2132 – Definitions
This exclusion matters because purpose-bred rats and mice make up the vast majority of animals in American labs. USDA statistics only count species covered by the Act. In fiscal year 2024, facilities reported using approximately 775,300 covered animals, with guinea pigs, rabbits, hamsters, and nonhuman primates among the largest categories.3Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Research Facility Annual Report Summary, Fiscal Year 2024 Credible estimates of total lab animal use, including the excluded rodents, run many times higher. The primary federal inspection law simply does not apply to most animals in laboratories.
Excluded animals are not entirely unprotected. If the research is funded through the Public Health Service, separate guidelines apply regardless of species. For privately funded studies on purpose-bred mice or rats, no federal law mandates minimum care standards or independent inspections.
PHS Policy and Federally Funded Research
Any institution that receives funding from the Public Health Service, including the National Institutes of Health, must follow a separate set of animal care requirements rooted in the Health Research Extension Act of 1985 (Public Law 99-158). That law directed the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish guidelines for the care and use of animals in federally funded biomedical and behavioral research.4National Institutes of Health. Health Research Extension Act of 1985
The key difference from the Animal Welfare Act is reach. PHS Policy applies to all vertebrate animals, including the rats, mice, and birds the AWA excludes. If a university receives NIH funding for mouse studies, those mice must be cared for under PHS standards even though the USDA has no inspection authority over them. The same mouse in the same cage might or might not be federally protected, depending on who wrote the grant check.
The Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare administers this system. Each institution files an Animal Welfare Assurance, essentially a contract promising to comply with PHS Policy and the Guide for the Care and Use of Laboratory Animals.5National Institutes of Health. About Us – Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare OLAW investigates allegations of noncompliance and can withdraw an institution’s Assurance, which shuts down all PHS-funded animal research at that facility until the problems are fixed. Losing NIH funding can cost a research university tens of millions of dollars.
Which Agencies Enforce the Rules
USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, a branch of the USDA, is the primary enforcement agency for the Animal Welfare Act. Its inspectors conduct unannounced visits to licensed and registered facilities to review animal care, housing conditions, and recordkeeping.6Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Animal Welfare Act Enforcement Research facilities housing covered species are inspected at least once per year.7Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. AWA Inspection and Annual Reports
When inspectors find violations, minor infractions often result in official warning letters. More serious or repeated problems can lead to formal proceedings before USDA administrative law judges, where facilities face civil penalties of up to $14,575 per violation, license suspensions, revocations, or cease-and-desist orders.8Federal Register. Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustments for 2025 That per-violation cap is adjusted annually for inflation and has climbed substantially from the original $10,000 statutory figure.
FDA and EPA
The Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency influence animal testing mainly by setting the safety data companies must produce before bringing drugs and chemicals to market. For decades, this effectively required animal studies because the law referenced “preclinical tests (including tests on animals)” as part of the drug approval process. That changed in late 2022. The FDA has also clarified that federal law does not specifically require animal testing for cosmetics, though manufacturers remain responsible for proving their products are safe.9U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Animal Testing and Cosmetics
The EPA has adopted a work plan to reduce reliance on vertebrate animals in chemical safety assessments. The 2016 amendments to the Toxic Substances Control Act gave the agency an explicit statutory mandate to promote alternatives, so this is a legal obligation, not just a policy preference.10US EPA. EPA New Approach Methods Work Plan: Reducing Use of Vertebrate Animals in Chemical Testing
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committees
Both the Animal Welfare Act and PHS Policy require every research facility to establish an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee. These committees serve as the front-line oversight for every experiment involving animals. They can approve, modify, or reject any proposed study, and they can halt ongoing research if protocols are violated.
The two regulatory tracks set different minimums for committee composition. AWA regulations require a chair and at least two additional members, including a veterinarian with laboratory animal experience and an unaffiliated member representing community interests.11eCFR. 9 CFR 2.31 – Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC) PHS Policy requires at least five members, including a veterinarian, a practicing scientist experienced in animal research, one member whose concerns are primarily nonscientific, and one unaffiliated community member.12National Institutes of Health. PHS Policy on Humane Care and Use of Laboratory Animals
Most research universities receive PHS funding and hold USDA registrations simultaneously, so in practice they follow the stricter PHS requirements. Regardless of which track applies, the committee must physically inspect all animal housing areas and labs at least every six months and report any deficiencies.
Reporting and Public Access to Records
Every USDA-registered research facility must submit an annual report on APHIS Form 7023, documenting the number of covered animals used and sorting them by pain category. The categories range from animals held but never used in procedures, through animals that experienced pain managed with anesthetics or analgesics, to animals that experienced unrelieved pain because drugs would have compromised the study.13United States Department of Agriculture. Annual Report of Research Facility Researchers who conduct painful procedures without pain relief must attach a written justification.14Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Submit Research Facility Annual Reports
In fiscal year 2024, facilities reported roughly 55,600 animals in the most severe category of unrelieved pain, out of approximately 775,300 total.3Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. Research Facility Annual Report Summary, Fiscal Year 2024 These reports, along with inspection results and facility registration information, are searchable through the USDA Animal Care Public Search Tool.15U.S. Department of Agriculture. USDA Animal Care Search Tool Records not available online can be requested under the Freedom of Information Act. These numbers only capture AWA-covered species; the millions of purpose-bred rats and mice used each year do not appear in any federally mandated public database.
Whistleblower Protections
The Animal Welfare Act prohibits retaliation against laboratory employees who report animal welfare violations. No facility employee, committee member, or lab worker can be fired, demoted, or otherwise punished for raising concerns about how animals are treated.16U.S. Geological Survey. Reporting Animal Welfare Concerns and Complaints Institutions must establish internal reporting channels, so employees are not forced to go directly to a federal agency to be heard.
Reports to the USDA can be made anonymously, and individuals can request that their identity be kept confidential. In practice, investigations sometimes require the agency to gather information that could reveal who filed the complaint, so confidentiality is not absolute. The legal protection against retaliation exists regardless of whether the complaint is anonymous.
Recent Changes to Animal Testing Requirements
FDA Modernization Act 2.0
For decades, the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act specifically required “preclinical tests (including tests on animals)” as part of the drug approval process. The FDA Modernization Act 2.0, signed in December 2022, struck that language and replaced it with “nonclinical tests,” defined to include cell-based assays, organ-on-chip systems, computer models, and bioprinted tissues, alongside traditional animal studies.17Congress.gov. S.5002 – FDA Modernization Act 2.0 The law did not ban animal testing for drug development. It removed the legal mandate that had made animal testing the only acceptable path, giving drugmakers the option of using alternative methods to generate safety data.
In 2025, the FDA built on this foundation by announcing a plan to phase out animal testing requirements specifically for monoclonal antibodies and similar biologic drugs. The agency plans to accept safety data from AI-based toxicity models, cell-line testing, and real-world evidence from other countries where a drug has already been studied in humans. A pilot program allows select developers to use primarily non-animal testing strategies, with the findings expected to shape broader policy over time.18FDA. FDA Announces Plan to Phase Out Animal Testing Requirement for Monoclonal Antibodies and Other Drugs
EPA’s 2035 Mammalian Testing Deadline
The EPA has set a public goal of eliminating mammalian animal testing by 2035. Its strategy involves identifying alternative methods that can replace traditional animal studies now, reviewing regulations for flexibility to grant waivers from existing testing requirements, and encouraging outside researchers and data providers to adopt newer approaches.19US EPA. Memo Recommitment to Reducing Animal Testing and Eliminating Mammalian Testing by 2035 Whether that deadline holds will depend on how quickly alternative methods gain enough scientific validation to satisfy the agency’s safety standards for chemical regulation.
Cosmetics Testing
More than a dozen states have passed laws banning or restricting the sale of cosmetics tested on animals. At the federal level, no such ban currently exists, though the Humane Cosmetics Act was reintroduced in Congress in 2025 and referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.20Congress.gov. H.R.1657 – Humane Cosmetics Act of 2025 The FDA has stated that federal law does not require animal testing for cosmetics, but it also does not prohibit the practice. The state bans go further by restricting the sale of products developed using animal testing, even if the testing occurred elsewhere.