Mouse

(Draft: Not for distribution or quotation.)

This is my fourth “species chapter,” but with a twist. Where tales of dogs, rabbits, and monkeys catalyzed assorted new protections for laboratory animals, mice have done the opposite. Mice garner little public sympathy. They are excluded from the US Animal Welfare Act, legally not “animals” at all. Biotechnology and genetic engineering developed first among mammals in mice now threatens to bring other species, genetically engineered monkeys in particular, back into the labs just as we have been seeing their numbers decrease. Ethics committees and scientists score it as a victory for animal welfare when they can clear the labs of dogs, or woodchucks, or monkeys or other animals by switching to mice, and often in much greater numbers than the larger animals. Mice give labs permission of sorts to continue animal testing, far from public scrutiny or concern. It’s past time to let mice become legal “animals” and extend Animal Welfare Act protections to them.