
I Photographed Ex-Lab Rats And Mice Going Outdoors For The First Time, And Their Expressions Say It All
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Last summer I photographed mice and rats. Well, nothing special, are you thinking? Let me add a detail which made this session unique: for them, it was the first time ever outside a cage, open air.
My little models were test animals, just saved by La Collina dei Conigli, Italian charity based near Milan.
Every year in Italy, hundreds of thousands of animals die in laboratories. Some are used for lethal tests, but most could be saved: many are used for experiments from which they could easily recover and restart normal life, others are not actually used in test, but are kept in laboratories as a surplus of safety or control, and once the experiment has ended they become “a useless expense” for labs .
Italian law allows experimental laboratories not to kill healthy and ‘salvable’ animals, but to release them to individuals or charity, like La Collina dei Conigli. Retirements are agreed by the association directly with trial laboratories through delicate negotiations, which often entail shortages of many animals at a time.
La Collina dei Conigli has specialized in the recovery of rabbits and critters, dealing with them from the lab’s exit to (hopefully) a new life in a family.
I have been supporting this charity for years now with my pictures as a volunteer photographer (I am also a proud member of HeArts Speak network, a nonprofit organization that’s uniting art and advocacy to increase the visibility of shelter animals – “Creating a world where no shelter animal goes unseen” is their motto).
In the last years, I took inspiration from Alice in Wonderland, The Little Prince, Fairytales… this time, I decided to picture the best story ever, because, even if there’s so much wrong around, sometimes, reality can become better than fiction.
So no special effects, but something better: the surprise when these little critters feel the sun on their fur for the first time, their curiosity for a brand new world to discover, how deeply they enjoy their first moments of freedom, led and protected by volunteers, who are always by their side on the long path to recovery…
Shy ones, little warriors, curious explorers, cuddle-lovers: everyone acted in a different way when taken outdoors, and they showed once again that they are not mere numbers, as they are considered in labs, but individuals with peculiar attitudes and personalities.
That very hot day in August was their first time outside the cages, and I feel grateful to have witnessed such a great moment of rebirth!
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Big foot
So… is this above the famous “sky”?
Grateful
Breathing and smelling!
Little Bros
Who are you?
Contemplating
Loving cuddles
Hold me
Curious guy
Exploring
Safe now
I’ll protect you…
Enjoying the moment
I love you!
Tell me the story of how you rescued me, again…
So many things to see
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It makes me so incredibly sad that these lovely little personalities were abused by humans and it makes me so happy that they were saved. However not all Lab animals will be given out so freely, which means there are still so many of those little guys suffering. Thanks for at least make some of their lives better. Ratties make lovely and funny pets and they are so clever!
Most lab rats and other animals we use to test medicine one have better lives than most pets. And to all the people who think we abuse these animals, are you vegan? We abuse the animals we consume. Lab animals have food, toys, a clean cage and companions. It is sad we have to kill them in order to get medicine for cancer and stuff, but I don't think any of you would reject a cure for cancer.
I have no idea how it looks like another country, but I have a friend who is studying neurobiology at Jagiellonian University (Poland) and there they do not care about them as well as You described it =/ These little buddies have just a cage, the minimum amount of food and after all they are just killed. So I don't think that labs are so wonderful place for any animal
wtf are u talking about...maybe in Wonderland they treat lab rats like that :)
seeing these pictures breaks my heart knowing what they go through and as a mother as i call myself to hamster's mice and other little fur babies i think it is wrong for them to be treated this way they have hearts and love like we love and yes i am veggie/ vegan and yes would love a cure for cancer but not by treating animals this way xx
Kip, I've seen the way animals are treated in labs and that is simply not true. Their treatment is highly dependent on their "use" and the people performing the tests. Laboratory testing for cosmetics and home products is completely unnecessary and cruel. We shouldn't even have products that need to be tested on animals. If they contain harmful ingredients, they should be outlawed. As far as animal testing for medical research, it's ineffective and un-relatable to humans. There is an incredibly high failure rate for animal to human testing. There are also more effective, cruelty free methods for testing drugs like; in vitro (test tube) test methods and models based on human cell and tissue cultures, computerized patient-drug databases and virtual drug trials. We can also use computer models and simulations and stem cell and genetic testing methods. Animal testing is barbaric and unnecessary.
Cancer will never be cured. It makes way too much money for the medical community. A hard but true fact.
Relying on animal research and testing to protect and improve human health is not only unsafe, but also expensive, time-consuming, and unreliable... Statistics show irrefutably that animal-based methods used in preclinical testing to select drugs for human use are unreliable. In fact, studies show that if you flipped a coin to guess how a human will respond to a certain drug, your prediction would actually be as accurate as if you tested the drug on a nonhuman animal... despite millions of animals used and billions of taxpayer dollars spent on cancer research, roughly 95 percent of cancer drugs that enter human clinical testing fail while our incidences of cancer have continued to rise. Stated by Dr. Richard Klausner, former Director of the National Cancer Institute, “We have cured cancer in mice for decades—and it simply didn’t work in humans.” !! You are being lied to.. the truth is vivisection is a nasty fraud that kills animals and humans alike.. all of it!
No one is rejecting a cure for cancer.. we are rejecting the NOTION you have that there is a cure for cancer to be found using animals that can translate to humans.. and the absolute fallacy that lab animals are treated well!
However, mice and rats are the worst things to test any type of medication on. They had found a medication that did really with to beat cancer yet when they tested it on humans it sent them into multiple organ failure. Mice are the worst things we could ever test human drugs on.
says an animal abuser must be to stick up for these losers, better life now that is funny better life living in a small cage never going outside never being loved, pet etc only being taken out to be poked stuck with whatever they feel like sticking them with,they have food toys bullshit they need LOVE and kindness not being used and abused,,and there is cures for cancer/aides/and alot of others, BUT they make more money with treatments and med selling to let it out..........and with everything people have before them now a days ANIMALS DO NOT HAVE TO BE USED!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Alicja, I live in the Netherlands and here there are very strict rules concerning animal well-being. There are several committees that have to give permission for an animal test. They focus on several issues such as how can you minimize the amount of animals used and of it is necessary to test on animals at all. I also know there are some beautiful new techniques in development to recreate human organs.
I've read about far too many experiments where the animals were treated in a very brutal manner. Consider the dogs used in the Veterans Administration experiments in the US. The goats who had limbs cut off with inadequate anesthesia by the Dept. of Defense. The puppies especially bred to have painful muscular dystrophy who cannot eat properly and shake until they die from the experiments or the disease, the Beagles forced to breathe smoke until they die and are dissected because someone thinks we need yet one more experiment to show how harmful smoking is, and I could go on and on. It's sickening. It's unethical. Most of all, it's pointless.
There is no cure for cancer. There are only therapies that help us to survive, with too many side effects. I think animals don't deserve to be 'used' for us humans.
"Giving cancer to laboratory animals has not and will not help us to understand the disease or to treat those persons suffering from it." - Dr. A. Sabin, 1986, developer of the oral polio vaccine. "Everyone should know that most cancer research is largely a fraud, and that the major cancer research organisations are derelict in their duties to the people who support them." - Linus Pauling, PhD, 1986, two time Nobel Prize Winner. "Not only are the studies themselves often lacking even face value, but they also drain badly needed funds away from patient care needs." - Dr. Neal Barnard, M.D., 1987, President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), Washington.
Seriously, you are incredibly flippant about the use and abuse of sentient beings. In case you haven't heard the news, veganism is growing exponentially. Figures released from The Vegan Society suggesting there are now at least 542,000 people in Britain who are following a vegan diet, an increase of 350% compared to a decade ago. Go Vegan.
NOBODY likes to see animals kept as lab animals and continually being tested on! ALSO, we all know that these animals havent been able to engage in a LOVING relationship with humans! Your comments are un-needed AND unwarranted! If people want to feel bad for them, they have that right! Why only make things worse?? Because you are a common troller.
Incorrect. On both counts. They have terible lives in general ( and how do you make experimenting on someone humane?) . If it is a better life than most pets have, then just let them take your pets and do the exact same thing to them. Although you are right, we do abuse the animals we consume. Easy answer: dont consume them. We also know that not only do we not need to experiment on non human animals ( and we would not have the right to if we did) it actually impedes scientific and medical progress to do so, because each species reacts differently.
http://www.pcrm.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/research/research/Genetically-Modified-Mice-Fact-Sheet.pdf
Yes vegan here
Have you found one yet, Kip? After all of these years of research, with all of the money pumped into it, and all of the loss of life, it would be reasonable to assume that you should have found one by now.
Get off the crack buddy.
Lab rats live BETTER lives than pets?? What are you smoking? Last time I checked, I don’t torture, experiment on, or kill my pets.
Lab rats have BETTER lives than most pets?! What are you smoking? Last time I checked, I don’t torture, experiment on, or kill my pets.
Oh yes I am vegan, and wanna test medicines taka a killer or a dirty pedophile, not an innocence animal
yes vegan here...and the sad part is that the research you claim to do is all fake science....not one cure for anything has yet to be found with these cruel experiments on animals. What is found are drugs that have worse side effects than the symptoms of the disease the drug is being used for. There is no need for the senseless experiments which produce nothing except money for the owners of the company.
You are a psychopath and a junk scientist. Animal tests prove nothing. They are bad science, waste of time and resources etc etc And to say they are treated well is a contradiction in terms.
I’m vegan, and I think testing on animals is disgusting, and an outdated way to test if you want viable, reliable, and transferable results that can be used on the human model. Computer and other forms of testing available is the way forward. Grants and funding keep the vivisectionists in work. As for lab animals having better lives than domestic pets, if you really believe that, I feel sorry for any domestic animals in your care!
Freedom is the most important in life...je vous suggère la fable de Jean de Lafontaine :"LE LOUP ET LE CHIEN ". Cordialement Fracois st michel
actually i would and i am vegan - it's unnecessary and cruel to test on animals - test on human volunteers or mass murderers or terrorists, but animals? you can piss off with your rationale for cruelty
What are you talking about Maggie?? Medicines to treat cancer? Yes, there are literally hundreds which help cure patients every day. And yes, they were tested on animals first.
Crap didnt mean to post twice. Whoops lol
Actually mice are the worst thing to test human drugs on. There was a test with a new cancer drug that worked amazingly with mice. But when given to humans it sent them all into multiple organ failure. Testing on mice is absolutely pointless. It wastes time, money, and resources.http://www.trutv.com/shows/adam-ruins-everything/blog/adams-sources/adam-ruins-science.html https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2964774/
Lisa, I can never opens links. But it is sad that in that case it did not work. However, I still think that testing on animals is necessary to understand and find cures for many diseases. I also think it is important for us to understand how we can provide better life for our food and pets.
Would those who are against animal tests also volunteer to have these tests performed on them? Or would they refuse to take any modern cancer medicine?
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
They were not ABUSED. Do you have reading comprehension issues? Do you like the antibiotics you take? They have to be tested before they can be proven safe.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
I resigned my office-job and now I am getting paid £64 hourly. How? I work over internet! My old work was making me miserable, so I was forced to try something different, two years after...I can say my life is changed-completely for the better! Check it out what i do... http://cutt.us/kVPdI
I really can't understand people who love everything fluffy except for rats and mice. I mean, how could you hate these little guys? It's not their fault that their ancestors spread diseases.
I know a lot of people get creeped out by their tails, too. It’s a shame because they make great pets. I’d definitely adopt a couple rats if I didn’t have a terrier that would be hunting them!
WE have had many pet rats and some mice and they make great pets bad thing rats only live about 3 years
In fact, I have two rats at home that I have as a pet! They are so stinkin' cute
Yes, if they had a lovely fluffy tail their reputation would be very different. I must admit all the good things I have read about their nature somehow doesn't suit the 'from another planet' almost reptilian looking tail (no offense to reptiles, but they just don't seem so cuddly, generally speaking.) The little guys in these photos looked gorgeous.
I know right?!? Rats are the quirkiest little animals I have ever met. They're furry, they're funny, and most of all, fabulous. What's not to love?
For most of them, it was the fleas living on them that spread the disease, not the rodents themselves. Yes, they can be pests in the wild, eating crops and food stores, but as pets, they're lovely little creatures.
And humans are now thought to have spread the plague, not rodents: http://www.history.com/news/rats-didnt-spread-the-black-death-it-was-humans
WE spread diseases and people somehow manage to love US! Why not these guys?
Humans spread far more disease, including the plague: http://www.history.com/news/rats-didnt-spread-the-black-death-it-was-humans
I think these rats are very cute in these pictures. But I am scared of the rats who ate babies. They were huge and scary and you know- Ate Babies. But - I don't think its ok to torture in labs animals. I've seen these experiments with cats and implanting robotic eyes and stuff. Horror show. Complete and utter horror show.
I have had pet rats, they are brilliant and so very loving. Thank you for taking the time to allow these guys an experience they will cherish forever!
Thank you so much!
I have four - Hesta and Nesta (two sisters) and Billy Brahms and Benny Beethoven (boys) and they're housed separately, of course!
Rats are amazing. Everyone has own unique personality. You will be never bored with them :-)
It makes me so incredibly sad that these lovely little personalities were abused by humans and it makes me so happy that they were saved. However not all Lab animals will be given out so freely, which means there are still so many of those little guys suffering. Thanks for at least make some of their lives better. Ratties make lovely and funny pets and they are so clever!
Most lab rats and other animals we use to test medicine one have better lives than most pets. And to all the people who think we abuse these animals, are you vegan? We abuse the animals we consume. Lab animals have food, toys, a clean cage and companions. It is sad we have to kill them in order to get medicine for cancer and stuff, but I don't think any of you would reject a cure for cancer.
I have no idea how it looks like another country, but I have a friend who is studying neurobiology at Jagiellonian University (Poland) and there they do not care about them as well as You described it =/ These little buddies have just a cage, the minimum amount of food and after all they are just killed. So I don't think that labs are so wonderful place for any animal
wtf are u talking about...maybe in Wonderland they treat lab rats like that :)
seeing these pictures breaks my heart knowing what they go through and as a mother as i call myself to hamster's mice and other little fur babies i think it is wrong for them to be treated this way they have hearts and love like we love and yes i am veggie/ vegan and yes would love a cure for cancer but not by treating animals this way xx
Kip, I've seen the way animals are treated in labs and that is simply not true. Their treatment is highly dependent on their "use" and the people performing the tests. Laboratory testing for cosmetics and home products is completely unnecessary and cruel. We shouldn't even have products that need to be tested on animals. If they contain harmful ingredients, they should be outlawed. As far as animal testing for medical research, it's ineffective and un-relatable to humans. There is an incredibly high failure rate for animal to human testing. There are also more effective, cruelty free methods for testing drugs like; in vitro (test tube) test methods and models based on human cell and tissue cultures, computerized patient-drug databases and virtual drug trials. We can also use computer models and simulations and stem cell and genetic testing methods. Animal testing is barbaric and unnecessary.
Cancer will never be cured. It makes way too much money for the medical community. A hard but true fact.
Relying on animal research and testing to protect and improve human health is not only unsafe, but also expensive, time-consuming, and unreliable... Statistics show irrefutably that animal-based methods used in preclinical testing to select drugs for human use are unreliable. In fact, studies show that if you flipped a coin to guess how a human will respond to a certain drug, your prediction would actually be as accurate as if you tested the drug on a nonhuman animal... despite millions of animals used and billions of taxpayer dollars spent on cancer research, roughly 95 percent of cancer drugs that enter human clinical testing fail while our incidences of cancer have continued to rise. Stated by Dr. Richard Klausner, former Director of the National Cancer Institute, “We have cured cancer in mice for decades—and it simply didn’t work in humans.” !! You are being lied to.. the truth is vivisection is a nasty fraud that kills animals and humans alike.. all of it!
No one is rejecting a cure for cancer.. we are rejecting the NOTION you have that there is a cure for cancer to be found using animals that can translate to humans.. and the absolute fallacy that lab animals are treated well!
However, mice and rats are the worst things to test any type of medication on. They had found a medication that did really with to beat cancer yet when they tested it on humans it sent them into multiple organ failure. Mice are the worst things we could ever test human drugs on.
says an animal abuser must be to stick up for these losers, better life now that is funny better life living in a small cage never going outside never being loved, pet etc only being taken out to be poked stuck with whatever they feel like sticking them with,they have food toys bullshit they need LOVE and kindness not being used and abused,,and there is cures for cancer/aides/and alot of others, BUT they make more money with treatments and med selling to let it out..........and with everything people have before them now a days ANIMALS DO NOT HAVE TO BE USED!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Alicja, I live in the Netherlands and here there are very strict rules concerning animal well-being. There are several committees that have to give permission for an animal test. They focus on several issues such as how can you minimize the amount of animals used and of it is necessary to test on animals at all. I also know there are some beautiful new techniques in development to recreate human organs.
I've read about far too many experiments where the animals were treated in a very brutal manner. Consider the dogs used in the Veterans Administration experiments in the US. The goats who had limbs cut off with inadequate anesthesia by the Dept. of Defense. The puppies especially bred to have painful muscular dystrophy who cannot eat properly and shake until they die from the experiments or the disease, the Beagles forced to breathe smoke until they die and are dissected because someone thinks we need yet one more experiment to show how harmful smoking is, and I could go on and on. It's sickening. It's unethical. Most of all, it's pointless.
There is no cure for cancer. There are only therapies that help us to survive, with too many side effects. I think animals don't deserve to be 'used' for us humans.
"Giving cancer to laboratory animals has not and will not help us to understand the disease or to treat those persons suffering from it." - Dr. A. Sabin, 1986, developer of the oral polio vaccine. "Everyone should know that most cancer research is largely a fraud, and that the major cancer research organisations are derelict in their duties to the people who support them." - Linus Pauling, PhD, 1986, two time Nobel Prize Winner. "Not only are the studies themselves often lacking even face value, but they also drain badly needed funds away from patient care needs." - Dr. Neal Barnard, M.D., 1987, President of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), Washington.
Seriously, you are incredibly flippant about the use and abuse of sentient beings. In case you haven't heard the news, veganism is growing exponentially. Figures released from The Vegan Society suggesting there are now at least 542,000 people in Britain who are following a vegan diet, an increase of 350% compared to a decade ago. Go Vegan.
NOBODY likes to see animals kept as lab animals and continually being tested on! ALSO, we all know that these animals havent been able to engage in a LOVING relationship with humans! Your comments are un-needed AND unwarranted! If people want to feel bad for them, they have that right! Why only make things worse?? Because you are a common troller.
Incorrect. On both counts. They have terible lives in general ( and how do you make experimenting on someone humane?) . If it is a better life than most pets have, then just let them take your pets and do the exact same thing to them. Although you are right, we do abuse the animals we consume. Easy answer: dont consume them. We also know that not only do we not need to experiment on non human animals ( and we would not have the right to if we did) it actually impedes scientific and medical progress to do so, because each species reacts differently.
http://www.pcrm.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/research/research/Genetically-Modified-Mice-Fact-Sheet.pdf
Yes vegan here
Have you found one yet, Kip? After all of these years of research, with all of the money pumped into it, and all of the loss of life, it would be reasonable to assume that you should have found one by now.
Get off the crack buddy.
Lab rats live BETTER lives than pets?? What are you smoking? Last time I checked, I don’t torture, experiment on, or kill my pets.
Lab rats have BETTER lives than most pets?! What are you smoking? Last time I checked, I don’t torture, experiment on, or kill my pets.
Oh yes I am vegan, and wanna test medicines taka a killer or a dirty pedophile, not an innocence animal
yes vegan here...and the sad part is that the research you claim to do is all fake science....not one cure for anything has yet to be found with these cruel experiments on animals. What is found are drugs that have worse side effects than the symptoms of the disease the drug is being used for. There is no need for the senseless experiments which produce nothing except money for the owners of the company.
You are a psychopath and a junk scientist. Animal tests prove nothing. They are bad science, waste of time and resources etc etc And to say they are treated well is a contradiction in terms.
I’m vegan, and I think testing on animals is disgusting, and an outdated way to test if you want viable, reliable, and transferable results that can be used on the human model. Computer and other forms of testing available is the way forward. Grants and funding keep the vivisectionists in work. As for lab animals having better lives than domestic pets, if you really believe that, I feel sorry for any domestic animals in your care!
Freedom is the most important in life...je vous suggère la fable de Jean de Lafontaine :"LE LOUP ET LE CHIEN ". Cordialement Fracois st michel
actually i would and i am vegan - it's unnecessary and cruel to test on animals - test on human volunteers or mass murderers or terrorists, but animals? you can piss off with your rationale for cruelty
What are you talking about Maggie?? Medicines to treat cancer? Yes, there are literally hundreds which help cure patients every day. And yes, they were tested on animals first.
Crap didnt mean to post twice. Whoops lol
Actually mice are the worst thing to test human drugs on. There was a test with a new cancer drug that worked amazingly with mice. But when given to humans it sent them all into multiple organ failure. Testing on mice is absolutely pointless. It wastes time, money, and resources.http://www.trutv.com/shows/adam-ruins-everything/blog/adams-sources/adam-ruins-science.html https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2964774/
Lisa, I can never opens links. But it is sad that in that case it did not work. However, I still think that testing on animals is necessary to understand and find cures for many diseases. I also think it is important for us to understand how we can provide better life for our food and pets.
Would those who are against animal tests also volunteer to have these tests performed on them? Or would they refuse to take any modern cancer medicine?
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
They were not ABUSED. Do you have reading comprehension issues? Do you like the antibiotics you take? They have to be tested before they can be proven safe.
This comment is hidden. Click here to view.
I resigned my office-job and now I am getting paid £64 hourly. How? I work over internet! My old work was making me miserable, so I was forced to try something different, two years after...I can say my life is changed-completely for the better! Check it out what i do... http://cutt.us/kVPdI
I really can't understand people who love everything fluffy except for rats and mice. I mean, how could you hate these little guys? It's not their fault that their ancestors spread diseases.
I know a lot of people get creeped out by their tails, too. It’s a shame because they make great pets. I’d definitely adopt a couple rats if I didn’t have a terrier that would be hunting them!
WE have had many pet rats and some mice and they make great pets bad thing rats only live about 3 years
In fact, I have two rats at home that I have as a pet! They are so stinkin' cute
Yes, if they had a lovely fluffy tail their reputation would be very different. I must admit all the good things I have read about their nature somehow doesn't suit the 'from another planet' almost reptilian looking tail (no offense to reptiles, but they just don't seem so cuddly, generally speaking.) The little guys in these photos looked gorgeous.
I know right?!? Rats are the quirkiest little animals I have ever met. They're furry, they're funny, and most of all, fabulous. What's not to love?
For most of them, it was the fleas living on them that spread the disease, not the rodents themselves. Yes, they can be pests in the wild, eating crops and food stores, but as pets, they're lovely little creatures.
And humans are now thought to have spread the plague, not rodents: http://www.history.com/news/rats-didnt-spread-the-black-death-it-was-humans
WE spread diseases and people somehow manage to love US! Why not these guys?
Humans spread far more disease, including the plague: http://www.history.com/news/rats-didnt-spread-the-black-death-it-was-humans
I think these rats are very cute in these pictures. But I am scared of the rats who ate babies. They were huge and scary and you know- Ate Babies. But - I don't think its ok to torture in labs animals. I've seen these experiments with cats and implanting robotic eyes and stuff. Horror show. Complete and utter horror show.
I have had pet rats, they are brilliant and so very loving. Thank you for taking the time to allow these guys an experience they will cherish forever!
Thank you so much!
I have four - Hesta and Nesta (two sisters) and Billy Brahms and Benny Beethoven (boys) and they're housed separately, of course!
Rats are amazing. Everyone has own unique personality. You will be never bored with them :-)