Dear Labby - Of Mice and Men

From my tumblr.

Welcome to our weekly agony-column for confused (post)grad-students--Dear Labby!  This week's letter is about how we deal with working with animals.

Dear Labby,
I want to cry. It's the first time I've handled mouse models. And I have to kill them to get their liver. I'm just a master's student doing a 3-month internship, so it was really my first time to see them slaughtered.
They're so cute. and I love animals. HOW CAN I SURVIVE DOING THIS? 

WHY SCIENCE? WHY?
-Rodent Murderer

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Dear RM, you are not a murderer, only an accessory to the crime. When this post goes live, you are to surrender yourself to the animal rights police in a peaceful manner. Taking Nembutal i.p. or i.v. is optional, as well as restrainers.

You might not want to use Nembutal but Valium as an anxiolytic for yourself whenever the topic of conversation ends up about working with lab animals. But whether or not you opt for this direction, you will need to get a doctor's signature to go with your pharmacy-request form from your lab manager.

(And please take the above statements with a good pinch of table salt! It is highly unsafe to work in the lab under the influence of neuroactive pharmaca!)

Now, you mentioned that you're a master's student. Depending on the specific training program of the department, you are not expected to be completely hands-on in terms of handling animals, especially in a very short period of time.  But still, this does not dissipate the "guilt" you feel about killing them.

I'll be frank and blunt about this--it can't get any better than that, dear.  And this sentiment comes from someone who raised 8 pet cats, had grown up with dogs and had rescued a lot of animals (of avian, rodent and feline persuasion) for most of her life, and is currently working with lab animals.

Trust me on this--doing what you have to do in the lab will not make you less of an animal-lover.

Still, if your project needs a mouse-liver, then you need to get your mouse liver. But what can be seen as truly sinful or unconscionable is when the sacrifice of these lab critters are wasted.  That is, if the discomfort or the sacrifice of the lab animal is only for the sake of generating trivial data (especially data that is not translated into useful human clinical data).

Hence, animal research labs working on translational research (i.e., preclinical research) practice the 3R's - reduction, refinement, replacement (e.g., with in vitro assays).

I hope this allays your distress and reluctance with working with animal models.  You simply have to plan your experiments properly so as to (1) reduce the number of animals used for statistical significance, (2) refine the technique so the life of the animal is not wasted and there is no discomfort for you and the animal, and/or (3) look for valid, efficient alternatives.


Hugs,
Labby

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"Dear Labby" is a collaborative effort by this blogger and her fellow PhD students in different fields of research.  Got a social (lab office) head-scratcher to share? Use the comment box below, or tell us here!