Where is the inference that the animals could have survived? I think it's pretty clearly outlined in the article that the animals end up dead regardless.
What the article is saying though, because of tight deadlines, sloppy procedures and chaotic environment, the trials are rife with mistakes that could have been prevented if they were more careful, so they don't have to repeat the same trial over and over because they fucked up the previous times.
So the suggestion is to instead of running a trial bad 4 times killing 4N pigs, run one good and proper trial so you only end up killing 1N pigs for the same output research data.
What the article is saying though, because of tight deadlines, sloppy procedures and chaotic environment, the trials are rife with mistakes that could have been prevented if they were more careful, so they don't have to repeat the same trial over and over because they fucked up the previous times.
So the suggestion is to instead of running a trial bad 4 times killing 4N pigs, run one good and proper trial so you only end up killing 1N pigs for the same output research data.