DigitalVision
Physically and behaviorally, few creatures have been measured, tested, and probed as much as the laboratory mouse. Yet what do scientists know about making mice happy or free of pain? Often, the answer is not nearly enough. This is a knowledge vacuum with ethical and experimental ramifications.
Pain management and environmental enrichment are hot topics in laboratory animal science. They are also conundrums defying easy fixes. Researchers may want to mitigate pain and suffering in their charges, but animals of prey hide their pain. Moreover, researchers do not agree on which medicines to administer, or at what doses.
Making the animals' living conditions more stimulating is also problematic. Doing what comes naturally, some social animals turn their new communal housing into boxing rings. And even if they don't, the new environment can change animal physiology in ways that confound experiments and undermine comparisons to previously obtained data.
"The rush ...
