We should be nicer to rodents

Brown rats and white rats. Which are better? Will THEY ever figure it out? Silly creatures of the same species. They are equal. They even feel the same pain.
We should be nicer to them. Traps that don't kill them. You should use traps where you can put them outside, alive.


A new study published on Sunday in the journal Nature Methods has concluded mice make facial expressions when they’re in pain.

Jeffrey Mogil at McGill University in Montreal, Canada worked with colleagues and Kenneth Craig, a psychologist who studies human pain at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, to develop a “mouse grimace scale.”

According to the Telegraph, This was done by injecting stomachs and paws with pain-inducing substances, including acetic acid, mustard oil, and capsaicin, the ''hot'' ingredient in chillies.

Animals were also injected with a chemical that triggers bladder cystitis, and made to suffer nerve damage.

The ''pain faces'' were identified by comparing video images of non-suffering mice with those in pain.

They were listed as: orbital tightening (eye squeezing), nose bulge - a rounded extension of skin on the bridge of the nose - bulging cheeks, ears drawn apart and back, and whiskers held against the face or standing on end.

This was apparently justified by saying that no study has ever been conducted to study facial reactions to pain, or to determine whether facial reactions were corresponding to being tortured, despite clear evidence that animals do make facial expressions to show emotion and communicate.

Mogil reportedly didn’t want the photos published because of the potential backlash from animal rights activists, but Wired's got the photos, if you care to see the faces of bad science.

He was also right, people who care about animal suffering were outraged.

''People should be clear that this study was not in any way intended to improve or positively impact on the welfare of mice (or any other animal). It was not intended in anyway to mitigate painful situations for mice used in research, rather just to find a new way of determining if a mouse is showing signs of pain,” said Dr Ned Buyukmihci, veterinary adviser at the British Union for the Abolition of Vivisection (BUAV).

Maybe this study will have everyone thinking a little harder about why birds, rats and mice aren’t covered under the Animal Welfare Act, since they can suffer after all.

If this should go in BTS. I'm sorry. Just want to try and help feeling creatures.

[edit on 8-6-2010 by Theone2000]

reply to post by Theone2000


This is a subject I have mixed feelings of.

While it is obvious without doing a massive stuy that rats feel pain, we do need to do certain tests that will help people.

This test though was a bit out there.

I don't feel it too relevent to help humans in need, though a study like this may have the effect of gaining better welfare to the subjects.

My belief is that if we use animals we should treat them humanely regardless of how brutal the experiment might be. Just because thy very well may ultimately die does not mean we should not show respect.

Where I work they get treated badly. The trap consists of a flat cardboard box with super glue and pizza in the middle that gets eft overnight. Then the "trap" rat included gets thrown in the trash compactor. The boss has to do it though as I refuse to, and have made all my workmates refuse as well. I figure t is the only way to get proper humane traps in. If they are so keen on killing them they can do it themselves.

Awesomely cute rat you linked to. Put a smile on mine.

Cheers,
Pabs

reply to post by pablos


You know, lukewarm soapy water dissolves that glue.

The soapy water is a solvent to it.

Next time, Fill the sink or basin with enough lukewarm water to submerge the rats feet and set the thing in the water. He'll be climbing out in a minute or less.

This is why they invented these traps - catch and release.

I am willing to let rats be as long as they stay outside. If one gets inside, it's at the mercy of my cats. I don't move fast enough to regulate their actions, so it's basically up to them if they kill the offending rodent quickly or slowly. However, the last time a rat got inside was 1993, and it's death was brutal, but lightning-fast. It couldn't have known that a cat was descending on it from a seven foot high book case on the other side of the room like a smart bomb!

Rats and mice also spread disease, or they spread the things that spread disease.

Letting a wild mouse or rat out of a glue trap as suggested is a good way to get bitten.

I hope someday someone comes up with a better alternative to using lab animals.

Come on they really had to do all that to find out if they feel pain!! thats shocking

Rats are very smart.

I used to breed them for my snakes I keep big boas and pythons.

But I dont feed live I made a gas chamber for the rats, that puts them in to a deep sleep before they died. When i used to walk into the rat room they used to all rush to the front of the cage they loved to come out and play and you could teach them tricks and they understood different words.

I would say they are almost as smart as a dog, and you wont find them doing all these tests to a dog!

I gave some to a friend and she trained them, she lets them wonder round the house and when she wants them to come back she claps her hands and they all come running back :-)

Originally posted by thedarklingthrush

Letting a wild mouse or rat out of a glue trap as suggested is a good way to get bitten.

Really...

Because I would have thought using gloves or tongs and setting the rodent in a basin of lukewarm water outside of a building with a door and a brickwall between the rodent and one's body would prevent the biting from ever taking place.

Do you perhaps live in Japan, or some other nation where paper walls are popular?

I like your point however it is missing something.

How about removing rodents with all animals ?