Arguably one of the darker aspects of our society

I'm a pre-clinical medical researcher

I know imgur loves work stories, but I'm not sure how people will respond to this. Animal research is something that people are at best, uncomfortable with (for understandable reasons) and at worst, violently offended by. This post is almost more about the lives of the animals than it is about my experiences as a researcher, maybe someone will find it interesting. However, I know that many people look down on this type of thing. I am prepared for everything from downvotes to death threats.

because of my work contract, the details in this post will be vague.

Most people on imgur seem to be pretty against the anti-vaccine 'movement' (thankfully), but one of the unfortunate realities of vaccine development is that they absolutely require the use of animals in testing. Though there are methods under production of testing vaccines and medicines without using any animals, it's going to be a long time before any of that is really workable (ironically, those techniques will have to be vetted against countless studies that do use animals to see if it really works). As of now, you can be sure that the reason that your children are able to be successfully immunized against disease is thanks to the sacrifice of thousands of animals, mostly mice. We owe our relatively disease-free lifestyles to the little guys. It really puts things in perspective to think how our society is built on the backs of these creatures who occasionally eat each others' faces over minuscule territory disputes.

The facility I work in does everything from developing vaccines, to testing the effects of drugs.

This is a bit of an exaggeration. My facility uses both rabbits and mice, but for different purposes. Both animals are given spacious cages, food, water, toys, etc. They have all the amenities of a cared for pet. The difference is that rabbits get used for antibody experiments, and mice get used for drug and vaccine testing. this means that rabbits go about their lives pretty comfortably, getting a needle stuck in them about once a week, whether it be to draw blood or inject them with something (depending on what the experiment is). Of course rabbits dont like needles, but they typically get used to it. I have never seen a rabbit killed in our lab for any reason, and when we're done with whatever experiment they're part of, we give them away. Usually an intern or friend of an employee adopts them. It's much cheaper for us to adopt them out-- and then later buy new rabbits-- then it would be to keep housing and feeding the same ones forever when they're not being used. Also their cages are pretty huge. I actually feel bad for most pet rabbits, as the cages their owners usually give them are tiny and cramped. Rabbits like space, and ours are comparatively spoiled.

Mice however are not quite as lucky. No mouse that enters our facility ever exits alive. the experiments we use them for are usually in research of life threatening diseases, vaccines, or medications that can help against a disease after it's contracted. Even if the experimental treatment works, and a mouse survives the disease we've infected it with, we still euthanize the mouse so that we can examine it's internal organs for traces of the disease, damage caused by the drug, etc. this is something a lot of people can't quite wrap their mind around-- people would like to hear that we just let them go after we've cured the illness, but no dice. It's important to look for toxic effects of the drug, and the best way to do that is by taking out the organs. It's only polite to do that after the mouse is deceased. We do euthanize them as humanely as possible, typically by CO2 asphyxiation.

The experiments we perform do typically decrease the quality of life for the animals. Big surprise-- no one likes being infected with a disease, and mice are no exception. That said, we do spend hours every day monitoring the health of each animal, and if they are in to bad of shape, we euthanize them. We're not torturers.

On the other hand, they don't hate everything we do to them. Some procedures involve giving the mice a sugary medication. They fuckin love that shit. And I've never seen a more compliant mouse than the ones in the THC testing program.

I think a lot of people imagine animal research scientists as being emotionless automatons with no sympathy for the animals we use. It's true that some of the more grizzled veterans of the pre-clinical research industry can get pretty desensitized, but none of us are without care for the animals. Personally, I think of them sort of like pikmin (if you havent played the gamecube game, you wont get the reference). I feel bad for them when they die, but ultimately we need to make the sacrifice for the greater good. A lot of us use dark humor to mask the discomfort of inflicting pain on other living creatures, but we all understand that it's going towards a good cause. Even so, a lot of potential employees/interns leave quickly because they can't stand the nature of the work.

we put a lot of work into being as precise and efficient as we can at every procedure we do. More precision = fewer accidents = less unnecessary suffering for the mice. we also design experiments to use as few mice as possible while still yielding sufficient data.

I belong to a family of animal lovers, some of whom would probably freak out if they knew that some days I'll spend an entire shift dissecting dead mice. I consider myself an animal lover too, I have two dogs and a cat who i love very much, and it took a while for me to adapt to the job, even though I have a love for science. I prefer the parts of the job that dont involve working with animals, but you do what you've got to. Working with mice means putting up an emotional and social barrier. It means a lot of lying through my teeth to friends and family about the nature of my work. The only people who know the specifics are my girlfriend and my parents. Fortunately though, most people wont know what I'm talking about when I say I'm a pre-clinical medical researcher.

If anyone is interested, maybe I'll post more?