The United States Department of Agriculture is charged with drawing up the Animal Welfare Act and Animal Welfare Regulations, the only federal laws that regulate the treatment of animals in research, teaching, testing, and exhibition and include animal facilities, vehicles, equipment, or other sites used or intended for use in business. These federal laws govern large and medium-sized animals, such as monkeys, dogs, cats, and rabbits, and include marine mammals, but do not regulate the use of rats and mice, which are commonly used in biomedical laboratories in universities and institutes in the United States. Therefore, the laws do not fully govern the management of laboratory animals in biomedical research institutions. By contrast, the policy on laboratory animal care and use supervised by the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) and Public Health Service (PHS) fully governs the use of all vertebrate animal species — including laboratory rats and mice — used in biomedical research. This paper gives a brief overview of historical events and information related to United States Animal Welfare Act and Animal Welfare Regulations. It is expected that this research could offer some enlightenment might offer guide the use and management of laboratory animals in China.