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Living with Lab Mice


A philosopher reflects on their unexpected roommates

In the United States, an estimated 10 to 111 million mice are used each year; rodents are not covered by the federal Animal Welfare Act, so exact counts are not made. Of course, lab mice generally don’t live long enough to build a community, and scientists usually view them as objects of a study instead of subjects with a life that matters most to them. At the same time, it is clear that the existing image of mice in human societies and science, as simple, mechanistic, replaceable beings, is entirely wrong—so I do want to make general statements to counter this.

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