Each year, Her Majesty's Stationery Office (the UK government's official printer) formally publishes two Command Papers on the working of the 1986 Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act. These two publications - ‘Statistics of Scientific Procedures on Living Animals’ and ‘Report of the Animal Procedures Committee’ - are presented by the Secretary of State for the Home Department (the government agency responsible for the control of animal experimentation) to parliament, and at the same time they are offered for general sale, ie they become public documents.

These guidelines, which have been prepared by a working party of the Bat Conservation Trust, are directed towards those who find or are presented with injured/diseased or orphaned bats. Should the animals be treated and released, killed humanely or kept in permanent captivity? The legal, moral and practical aspects of these questions are dealt with. It is clearly pointed out that it is sometimes necessary to humanely kill badly injured animals; that release back into the wild is only justifiable if the animal is truly recovered from its injury/disease and that retention of the animal in permanent captivity should only be attempted when there is a reasonable chance that the bat will enjoy a decent lifestyle. This is a very realistic and useful leaflet.

There is a considerable current debate going on as to the ethical, environmental, socio-biological and economic implications of man's use of biotechnology. A particular conflict revolves around the possible patenting of genetically engineered life-forms. It is as difficult, sometimes, for biologists to grasp the socio-legal arguments over these matters as it is for lawyers and philosophers to understand the underlying science and technology. The biologists’ problems will be lessened by a study of the proceedings of a conference jointly convened by the Intellectual and Industrial Property Society and the Monash University Centre for Human Bioethics, held in Melbourne, Australia in October 1990. Selected papers from this conference were printed in 1991 in Intellectual Property Forum: Journal of the Intellectual and Industrial Property Society. The eleven published papers, which mainly cover the ethical, social and legal arguments over the patenting and commercialization of new life-forms, are a most useful source of opinion and information in this difficult but most important technological area.

As stated İn the introduction to this new directory, the main aims of Life Science Pages are to encourage communication between scientific researchers and to enhance the accessibility of life science information throughout the United Kingdom. It is a comprehensive listing of contact details for scientists in university research departments and other centres in the Kingdom. All the major research areas are covered including agriculture, biology, earth sciences, psychology, veterinary science and others.

The Compassion in World Farming Trust has recently published a report on the welfare of pigs, cattle and sheep at the time of slaughter. It takes the form of a review of the scientific literature on the subject over the past ten years.

The journal Society and Animals, whose first issue was recently published by The White Horse Press has, in words from the Editor's Introduction, ‘The main purpose of fostering within the social sciences a substantive subfield, animal studies, which will further the understanding of the human side of human/nonhuman animal interactions.’ The intent is to publish refereed papers which describe and analyse man's experience of non-human animals.

This volume contains papers presented at a seminar organised by the State Veterinarians Branch of the New Zealand Veterinary Association and held at Rotorua (North Island) in June 1992.

The Research Defence Society (RDS) in 1991 organized a conference, which was held on the premises of the Royal Society in London, and invited several of the good and the great in biomedical research to speak on the subject of animal experimentation. This conference is one of a number of attempts made over the last few years to explain to the informed and sometimes to the general public the role, value and problems of scientific research using animals. These ‘explanations’ have ranged from apologetic defences to proud boastings. The proceedings volume of the RDS conference should, perhaps, be described as an example of ‘quiet pride in real achievement’. There are five main papers on the role of animal experimentation in the future of medicine, in fundamental studies, in the discovery of drugs and in neuroscience and cancer research. Only two short papers (5 pages in total) are devoted directly to the ethical implications of using animals; there are, however, a number of ethical points made in the main papers and in particularly in the most interesting thirteen pages of recorded discussion. The volume has a useful index.

This booklet has been written by the Humane Slaughter Association to help horse owners face up to the reality that sooner or later they may, on welfare grounds, have to decide to have their horse humanely killed. The practicalities of the matter are discussed in response to four questions.

Experienced livestock keepers know full well that they will have to cope, throughout the year, with a whole series of minor and, at times, major emergencies involving their animals. One of the talents of the good stockperson is his/her ability to anticipate trouble and to take early remedial action. In extensive husbandry systems the problems largely revolve around the weather, the provision of shelter and supplementary food. In intensive husbandry enterprises where large numbers of animals are often kept within buildings and are looked after by a relatively small staff, the crises result more from building failures and the breakdown of mechanical and electrical equipment.

The UK Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food publishes a number of free leaflets and booklets on farm animal welfare. Two of the latest ones are on heat stress in pigs and in poultry; they describe the main causes of heat stress in these two types of animals and outline some of the common sense management measures that will help to prevent it. There is also, apparently, a training video on heat stress available at a cost of £8.25 from MAFF Publicity Video Unit, Room 26, Government Buildings, Hook Rise South, Tolworth, Surrey KT6 7NF.

There has, up to now, been little in the way of sound informative literature on the employment of animals in biomedical research which could be recommended as an education resource for use in schools. This deficit has largely been overcome by the publication of two booklets: The Search for Health and Animal Experiments. The first of these has been put out by the Research for Health Charities Group and is a broad account of the role of research in developing modem treatments for human diseases. A serious attempt is made to explain, in as simple terms as possible, the underlying biology of disease processes and at relevant points in the explanations, the role of animal experimentation is discussed. There is little coverage of the control of animal usage.

This school education video, which is aimed at 7-12 year olds, has been produced by the National Farmers Union (South West Region) in association with the Wessex Poultry Committee. Its intent is to describe the realities of the poultry industry to school children and it has, seemingly, been made to counter the anti-intensive farming material freely available from other sources.

Over the last few years the biomedical research community, in response to numerous attacks from animal welfare and anti animal-usage groups, has produced a number of popular and semi popular leaflets and booklets defending animal-based research. The two publications considered here are typical examples of the material that has been produced. ‘Animals and the Advancement of Science’, a booklet from the British Association for the Advancement of Science, is a systematic expansion of the six point declaration on animal experimentation originally put forward at the Annual Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science in 1990. Amongst other things, it lists and briefly discusses a number of medical discoveries that were largely dependent on the study of animals and it claims that research using animals is essential to the understanding of disease processes and in the development and testing of new treatments. ‘Understanding Animal Research’ is a booklet in a less formal style, which has been sponsored by the Animals in Medical Research Information Centre and has been paid for by the pharmaceutical industry. It covers in essence the same ground as the British Association's booklet but in a more popular manner.