Laboratory test animals are suffering less pain and being treated more humanely, thanks to a new law.

Lab animals, which already have their contributions engraved on a monument here, will be tested while under anesthetic, and not in the presence of the same species during experimentation, according to new articles added by the local science and technology commission on Saturday.

Institutes and individuals conducting scientific and medical research are required to follow the management provisions for lab animals. Every year in Chongqing, about 130,000 animals, including rodents and bigger animals, are used in laboratory tests, according to the commission.

"We included the articles to ease the animals' pain and horror and to promote humane and scientific experimentations," said Pan Yongquan director of the Lab Animals Management Commission under the Chongqing science and technology commission.

The awareness of animal protection and welfare has advanced much in recent years, Pan told China Daily yesterday.

The erection of a monument in 2003 at the Chinese Traditional Medicine Institute of Chongqing in honor of lab animals' contributions to mankind is one example, he said.

"Moreover, experimenting on animals that are suffering pain, or are bred or kept in uncomfortable conditions, may result in research errors."

Also, papers based on those experiments could not be published in foreign journals because of certain failure to follow stringent requirements on animal welfare, he said.

But an expert from the commission told China Daily that given the large number of animals used for testing, researchers might not be able to avoid doing experiments in the presence of the same testing species.

"Only bigger animals like dogs, cats or monkeys can avoid facing another's experiments. But not lab rats," he said.

Research institutes in Chongqing and the local government have invested 30 million yuan ($4.39 million) in laboratory animal bases, which breed annually more than 170,000 animals, including rabbits, dogs, and 50,000 mice and rats. They use 80 percent of the animals for science and medicine research, according to the commission.

The use of lab animals nationwide is also substantially increasing at an annual rate of 20 to 30 percent in the past three years, according to the Chinese Association for Laboratory Animal Sciences.

"We must respect animals' lives as well. I hope our government and society could treat them better, not just during experimentation but also before and after it," said Chen Mingcai, president of the Chongqing Small Animal Protection Association.

"They were sacrificed for the good of human beings. We ought to thank them by better taking care of them at least," Chen said.