Some Thoughts on the Laboratory Cage Design Process

A block to progress in the design of cages and other restricted environments for animals has been the notion that animal and human needs are necessarily in conflict. The process of design should list the established and suspected animal needs separately from a list of human needs- husbandry and experimental. Comparison of the two lists will often show up more compatible needs than expected, and design features can be worked out to fulfill them. Adjustments may then be made where needs are less compatible until sufficient compatibility is achieved. An innovative design for a mouse cage is described, to show that this process can lead to harmony, new observations on animal needs, and to unforeseen benefits to both animals and humans