Both laws require persons caring for or using farm animals in research or education to receive specific training. This take-home module is designed to meet these requirements. Routine visits to university farms are made by members of University Animal Care and the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee to be certain that all areas of the farms are in full compliance. It is for this reason, that you may be required to make improvements to a housing area, modify a surgical procedure, or otherwise change some aspect which was earlier considered to be acceptable.
Farm animals are fundamentally different from more traditional laboratory animals.
One obvious example is their size. Genetics is an additional consideration. Perhaps the most important difference is the process of domestication. It is for this reason that standards written to ensure adequate care for these species are not as rigid nor narrow, as those written for more traditional laboratory animals. Some animal activists argue that farm species need restrictive housing guidelines but common sense dictates that if sheep and goats have prospered wherever man has settled, from sub-arctic snow fields to steamy jungles, than sheep and goats must be able to adapt to a wide range of living conditions.