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Many science majors are familiar with the use of lab rats in their hands-on education. In biology they are dissected, and in psychology, majors use them for the majority of their research. However, not all students feel the same about using rats in research.
There are some students who are more reluctant to have contact with the animals, probably in part because of the association with dirtiness, creepiness and disease. “I worked with psych lab rats in Intro to Psychology last semester,” said Tori Kenyon ’16. “As someone who is not a fan of rodents, I didn’t touch the rat but I worked with four other students to train the rat through conditioning.”
Other students, such as Casey Domine ’16, are more willing: “I have loved working with the rats. Personally, I think they are really cute and sweet. I always volunteer to be the rat handler so I can hang out with them. I helped on an independent study that was testing how caffeine and exercise affected pain tolerance; that was pretty cool.”
The leader of this independent study was Geoff Phaneuf ’14, who is a Behavioral Neuroscience major and works with lab rats frequently. “I didn’t mind working with [the rats], and the more I handled them the more comfortable I became. I never really considered them pets or gave them names or anything like that, as some might. But, that’s not to say they don’t have different personalities,” Phaneuf said.
For most students, the rats’ “cuteness,” or lack thereof, isn’t the issue at hand. Since rats are used mainly for their brains, the topic of animal cruelty often surfaces. By necessity, neuroscience experiments culminate in killing all rats, and often by beheading so their brains can be analyzed.
Hanna Rajabi, a senior Neuroscience major, explained the need for euthanizing all rats at the termination of research: “Every institution that uses animals for research must have an Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee…[which] has very strict rules that the board must attend to, one of them being the mandatory euthanasia of all animals.”
Each semester, Rajabi added, inevitably brings an onslaught of kind-hearted psychology and neuroscience students who want to adopt their research subjects. This is problematic because, according to Rajabi, “If the IACUC allowed some students to take animals home, their accountability of the animals is immediately lost, and there is no way to tell how this rat will be treated once it leaves the facility.”
This procedure elicits varying responses from students. “It’s a very conflicting topic for me,” said Domine. “As a behavioral neuroscience student I know that it is necessary to use [rats] and look at their brains to enhance my knowledge, but it still sucks. For me, the easiest way to get over the sad part is to remember that I owe a lot of my education and knowledge to these rats and to have a lot of respect for them and understand that I wouldn’t be able to progress without them. A lot of times I say thank you to them when I put them away. It may be kind of weird but it makes me feel better and I truly am grateful.”
Many students believe there should be alternatives. “I didn’t know about the killing of the rats until after the experiment. When I found out, I was actually really shocked,” said Kenyon. “It’s awful to think about and to know the rat I trained would be dead by next year. These rats were very docile and calm, and I think should only be used to Intro to Psychology rat training where they are not harmed at all.”
To be sure, Conn still follows the necessary humane protocols in place for this type of research. “All experiments done on the rats are reviewed by the College’s institutional review board to make sure we don’t put the rats through unnecessary trauma,” said Phaneuf. “It’s unfortunate that they are sacrificed, but it’s protocol. In the Behavioral Neuroscience Department, most of the time we need their brains to complete our research, and there’s no way of collecting that type of data when they’re alive.”
He added, “Rats are really the ideal experimental animal. They’re close enough to humans to produce brain data that can be generally representative of human brain function and they’re small enough to handle and test efficiently.”
While some might push for other animals to be used it seems rats may be the best fit for our situation “Rhesus macaques are also used in neuroscience research, but usually only at the big state universities with resources and space to keep them. Mice are another option that researchers use often,” said Phaneuf.
Kenyon added, “I’m sure it’s plausible that another animal could work with these experiments because it is all about the conditioning process, and dogs have been conditioned before, even human beings are conditioned. So, yes, I think any other animal who is put through the same process would be able to, I’m just not sure of the outcome.”
Rajabi, who recognizes the ethical concerns implicit in testing on rats, also acknowledged that it is a privilege to use them in research, and one that is largely unique to Conn. “The use of animals in an undergraduate neuroscience program is quite rare and something that sets Conn’s Neuroscience Department apart from other programs…the professors believe that to gain knowledge in the neuroscience field, this type of experience is crucial.”
As with most issues, there are two sides to every story. While rats are very important for scientific research and especially for neuroscience, wherein rats must be euthanized in order to use their brains, they are still animals that are being killed. Conn students understand this and are not insensitive about the fact that all subjects are euthanized, but in order for their research to continue, this is the way it is going to be.
For most students, the central question is how to reconcile ethical concerns with the very real benefits of using rats in research. •