Multiple experiments done in science have been completed by running tests on rats. On average, 95% of lab animals are rats, with 111 million killed in experiments everyday. There are various reasons as to why scientists experiment on these creatures and how they do it.

Why Rats?

Scientists commonly use rats for many reasons. According to Missouri Medicine, rats cost less to maintain, and the tools to manipulate their genomes have existed since the 1980s. Scientists also use rats due to how the small animals express themselves and how they react to certain situations.

Genomes are the complete set of genetic material that makes up a being. In cloning, scientists will remove these genomes from the rats and try to clone them in order to see if the procedure will work. Scientists will also mess with the genome to try to produce a certain result, like albinism or certain types of mutations. Some of these mutations include a loss of limb, hairlessness, added limbs, obesity, tumors, and cancers. 

Rats are also common for behavior studies, due to their social lifestyle. In fact, scientists have claimed that rats express emotions similarly to human beings. For example, rats laugh when feeling joy, and tend to enjoy social interaction with other rats or creatures. In some experiments, rats even choose to save a fellow rat from drowning in water rather than eating a tasty treat, placing a rat’s safety first and sharing the treat afterward.

Scientists also tend to study  rats, due to their similar structure on a molecular level. A majority of tests run on rats involve their similarities to the human body and how they react to the diseases that are forced into their bodies. Scientists do this in order to find a cure or a possible solution to temporarily ail the illness. 

Rat cruelty

During these experiments, rats experience many forms of abuse that are considered illegal if performed on other animals. In some cases, if an experiment fails or doesn’t produce the results the scientist wanted, they just kill the rats. When these failed experiments happen, they are oftentimes overshadowed by the experiments that did work as planned. 

According to PℯTA, a site that promotes ethical treatment for all animals, rats go through a multitude of tests that breach animal rights. Such tests include invasive brain surgery, burn experiments, poisoning, psychology tests, electroshock therapy, mutilation, drugs, cancers, and tumors. All of these tests are performed on these creatures because of the similarities they have to humans and how cheap they are compared to other animals. They are also unprotected by the federal Animal Welfare Act provisions. 

The federal Animal Welfare Act helps to protect animals from being tested on. The Act also requires the animals that are in the labs to be provided care and treatment. The Animal Welfare Act tries to prevent outright cruelty to animals that are brought and bred in labs. Animals such as dogs, monkeys, cats, and some birds are protected by this Act. However, most rodents, including rats, mice, and guinea pigs are left unprotected. 

During these experiments, most rats are not given pain relief. In fact, only 20% of the rats that undergo surgeries are given anesthetics. This goes against what the federal Animal Welfare Act has been trying to protect, but because rats are not protected, scientists can do whatever they need to do while saving supplies. 

Experiments

Rats are used in a wide variety of experiments, including purposefully trying to kill the animal by burning, mutilation, drowning, electroshock therapy, drugs, and even by other rats. These experiments are being considered successful more often now due to repetition and small adjustments of previous tests. 

In most cases, rats are often tested on drugs. This is because there are more drugs being introduced into society, and different people are affected by drugs in different ways. It is also a popular experiment because there are a multitude of variables that a scientist could change to get a certain, or unexpected, output.

During these experiments, they test for a multitude of things such as drugs, like those of methamphetamine (meth),  cocaine by drugging their food, and water sources. They also burn the rats to see how fast they react, as well as do electroshock therapy to see how the animal reacts. 

In conclusion, millions of rats face a multitude of cruel circumstances simply because they live in a lab. Around 111 million rats die in experiments everyday due to experiments. These experiments include drug usage, like those of methamphetamine (meth) and cocaine. They also burn the rats to see how fast they react, as well as do electroshock therapy to see how the animal reacts.