Rats

Are rats pets or pests, friends or foes? Rats and humans have a rich history of interaction. Rats have found ways to take advantage of human agriculture, infrastructure, and waste, while humans have found ways to use rats for research, companionship, and even military purposes. There are also negative ways we interact such as rats being vectors for disease and humans constantly trying to kill off rat populations with poison and traps. Before rats were domesticated by humans, our two species already had frequent interactions. When humans began shifting from hunter-gatherer lifestyles to lifestyles of agriculture, that opened the door for many human-rat interactions. Rats have been living in the homes of humans, eating food from human farms, and eating food stored in man-made structures for thousands of years, and they continue to do so. Anyone living in large cities can attest to the fact that rats love living in close proximity with humans, and they always find a way into our homes, fo...

  Dear PETA, I understand your concerns about the use of rats in research and I believe they are completely valid. Rats are intelligent, social animals, and subjecting them to painful experiments and torturous euthanasia methods is inhumane. The boring, cramped living conditions lab rats are subjected to are also quite cruel. And for what? Often times the data gained from these experiments cannot even be applied to humans due to biological differences. However, it is also important to recognize the benefits that come from using rats in scientific research. For example, rats have played a crucial role in the development of treatments for many human diseases, including cancer and diabetes. Furthermore, rats have a short reproductive cycle and a high rate of reproduction, making them useful in genetic research where human testing is unviable due to our long reproductive cycles. For these reasons, I don’t think it is reasonable to outright end the use of rats in research laboratori...

Have you ever heard of a rat guillotine? How about a rat gas chamber? Probably not, as the morbid realities of animal research are not often discussed. These are just two of many tools used to euthanize rats after the experiments scientists subject them to conclude. Science is not as glamorous as some might think, especially animal research which can be quite gruesome. However, animal research is critical in science. It has led to countless life-saving medicines and treatments including vaccines, cancer drugs, and organ transplants. The discoveries that result from animal research have vastly improved human lives. The arguments for and against rat research are both very compelling leading to many controversies surrounding the practice. Rat Guillotine Source: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural- and-biological-sciences/decapitation Rat CO2 Gas Euthanasia Chamber Source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Chamber-used-for- carbon-dioxide-exposure-Gas-is-introdu...