Guidelines and Policies

At the heart of all CCAC guidelines and policies is the fundamental ethical requirement to treat animals used for research, teaching, and testing with the highest standards of care. In addition to the moral responsibility of using animals in science, studies have proven that the failure to provide for the ethical treatment of animals impairs the rigour, reproducibility, and translatability of scientific research results.

The CCAC therefore provides a guiding mechanism through independent oversight that ensures high standards of animal care and use, based on scientific evidence and expert guidance, are broadly adopted and employed across Canada.

All CCAC guidelines and policies are based on the fundamental principles encapsulated in the following three policies:

• Ethics of animal investigation
• Social and behavioral requirements of experimental animals