Actually, he avoided animal experimentation. In PiKHAL, I believe he wrote that he hadn't experimented with animals in 20 years. His method was to first try each of the substances he discovered on himself.
To paraphrase him he says something like "inserting thermocouples into that rectums of restrained rabbits is not something that I'm much enthused about and I have a jaundiced view of."
I'll try to find that link and update it heh :)
So for your reference that's exactly what I meant by animal experimentation obviously helped him stay safe by giving him some more data on the compound before he took it himself.
edit: link: last paragraph here https://erowid.org/library/books_online/pihkal/pihkal125.sht...
Then again <https://dirtworship.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/sasha-shulgin-o...>
"This (MME) is one of the very few compounds with which I actually risked (and took) the lives of experimental animals" - worth reading the rest