Animals in science

Mice are the most commonly used animal in science. How we treat them really matters. Both from an ethical point of view and because animals kept in better conditions lead to better science. In the lab mice have to be picked up. Scientists are taught to grasp them at the base of the tail to get hold of them. Mice don’t really like this, work here at Newcastle has found it stresses them out. Guiding them into a small tube – like a toilet roll is much better. Small changes can make big differences. Join Tom to hear about how improvements like these can improve animal welfare and science.

Facial expressions can tell us a lot about how people are feeling- happy, sad, angry. Carers often use them to tell how a person is feeling when they can’t tell them in words. What about animals? Does it work the same? Ever come home and thought your dog ‘looked guilty’? Humans have developed close relationships with species like dogs and cats so maybe we are close enough to judge how they feel by how they look. Matt has developed a scoring system to see how an animal is feeling based on changes in their facial expressions. Does it work? Come along and try for yourself.