Posted by Boyington's bastard Are you saying the ferrets where killed for pleasure? Explain. I will point out that freezing is considered a human way to euthanize small animals. It's a recommended way to stop a pet fish's suffering. I've never used it; I prefer to give the animal a chance. Most lab animals are reuse for experimental or destroyed; it's unsound to release them as pets and few are. Many like the white rats make poor pets because of their inbreed tendencies to develop tumors. Few of mine ever came near their 3rd birthdays despite a good home. Wild animals deserve more of this attention... Back on topic... If your going to donate, check out the charity. Better yet, donate your time...
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Like I said - unscientific research is not beneficial to humans, or anyone. I don't know how else to get my point across.
Animal experiments are just like anything else - you can have good, and bad. And yes, lots of researchers at top universities get to do experiments that fulfill their desires, things they have wanted to do for a long time in their career (mostly psychological testing) and they get a grant, and they get to work. I would call that "for pleasure" when it supports a thesis that has NO application to humans whatsoever.
For example, the experiment where rats and mice were starved to see how long they would go until they ate a fellow mouse or rat. There is no direct correlation between the psychology of a rat and a mouse to a human. Sorry, there's not. In experiments like this, it's all about "animal psychology" and it's been done before.
My point was the March of Dimes has bad researchers and contract labs that perform useless experiments. They need better direct supervision and frankly, better scientists, to make good use out of their donations.
Freezing mammals is not a humane way to kill them. Euthanasia by a bolt to the head is the quickest method. IV is next; IP injections are painful; CO2 is torture for larger mammals (rats and ferrets, mice can be killed humanely with CO2 only if the chamber is deep enough and the CO2 is precharged, making the mice pass out within a second of being dropped into the CO2 - otherwise it is torture). Freezing is always painful, slow, both psychologically and physically torturing the animal for no reason. You are thinking of cold blooded animals, arthropods, fish, and insects. True, that is human for a fish. These are often frozen instead of being euthanized in some other manner.
Another point I did not make was that the physiology of the ferret brain is not comparable to a humans. In lab experiments, ferrets are not a popular choice for human related experiments (physically related structures) to humans. They are popular for one reason: their ability to carry the Avian Flu. They are highly susceptible and therefore are mainly used in flu, "cold", and Avian Flu tests.
Pigs and primates would have offered the March of Dimes quality information since they wanted to see the effect of freezing on a brain. Homologous structures are needed for that kind of IMPORTANT scientific information; not a mustelid brain that is in an entirely different section of Mammalia.
I don't know why you got into the topic of releasing lab animals as pets. But since you did - beagles and dogs are often rehomed. In the Bay Area, a big-name pharmaceutical went out of business and rehomed dozens of beagles within a day. Also, at my lab, a pig went home to a farm after its experiments. It is always up to the lab manager and the experiment being done.
Most of the time, a large amount of mice or rats are given a drug, the receive antibiotics, or whatever. Only a few out of large population will be killed for analysis. The rest will eventually be culled (euthanized) at the end of the experiment. Experiments can involve dozens to hundreds of mice.
Also there are different mouse and rat strains - you mentioned lab rats are more likely to get tumors. Nowadays, Google "buy lab mice" and you will find companies that have 27 different mice strains. You can get ones with human DNA, ones that don't live past 20 days old, ones that grow tumors, onces that have faulty hearts, ones that have bad livers, etc. Researchers can buy what they need for the experiment they are working on. I know workers who adopted mice who far outlived any pet store mice. Depending on the strain, you can have a mouse that lives twice the age of a "normal" mouse, or get a mouse that suddenly has a heart attack and dies five weeks from now. It is the same with rats.
I think we are on the same page, basically.
I agree, do your research. If you support the experiments, donate. I personally would like to see March of Dimes spend its money on more worthwhile studies than the "science" they have been doing since 2006.
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