Rat Tickling

https://www.nc3rs.org.uk/rat-tickling

by type0 • 5 years ago

98 23 5 years ago

nc3rs.org.uk

jonpalmisc2• 5 years ago

An online course created by Dr Megan LaFollette and colleagues (funded by AWI) allowing you to become certified in the correct rat tickling technique.

For anyone interested in getting certified:

https://storage.googleapis.com/ecourses/Rat%20Tickling%20Cer...

This seems like it would certainly be a fun résumé item to have.

beaconstudios2• 5 years ago

I was thinking the same myself, until I saw it was a 2-hour course. Now I'm just considering whether I'm invested enough in the joke.

[edit] https://imgur.com/a/EUXC4A5

turtlegrids• 5 years ago

You, sir/ma'am, are an inspiration.

brb in a couple hours.

jonpalmisc2• 5 years ago

Update: It's a good day to be a certified rat-tickler.

https://imgur.com/a/WZdpTKl

GloriousKoji• 5 years ago

If I ever become famous and am featured in an interview I'll be sure to mention you as someone who actually inspired me to directly achieve something.

alan-crowe• 5 years ago

There is not just tickling, there is also bruxing and boggling

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5S8PX5UDrk0

goldenkey2• 5 years ago

How soothing. Rats are so zen.

vgeek• 5 years ago

The last time I tried tickling a rat, I was asked to leave Disneyland.

geocrasher• 5 years ago

Weirdest euphemism ever.

civilized• 5 years ago

I'm relieved that this is about literal rat tickling and isn't a cutesy name for some technical programming or Agile or Scrum thing.

jareklupinski• 5 years ago

it sounds like what happens right after yak shaving

emptysongglass• 5 years ago

I have five rats and I've tried variations of this tickling technique on them both dorsal and ventral and they do not like it. They don't come back looking for more tickles, in fact they actively avoid it.

If you're wondering if I then continued this torment, no. I stopped with only an occasional revisit to see if my technique had improved.

Maybe the rats need to be tickled from an earlier age? I don't know.

keyanp• 5 years ago

Yes, juvenile rats respond better to tickling and tickling just after weaning will get the best results. Starting tickling past 3 months of age is harder and there is less research on it.

That said, some rats just don't respond well to tickling so if you see obvious negative behavior after 2-3 sessions then you should stop trying.

Source: Recently certified rat tickler (proof: https://imgur.com/rzdvf61)

cies2• 5 years ago

Poor animals. Locked up in small confinements. Tormented. Bred as we see fit, killed as we see fit, experimented on as we see fit (but it's for Science!).

There's quite some research to prove the whole animal testing is now mainly done for compliance reasons, that for their actual benefit is preventing bad stuff to happen to humans.

I hope one day we can do (largely) without test-animals.

rhaps0dy• 5 years ago

I agree. The treatment of animals destined to be eaten is way worse, as well. You should consider going vegan.

cies2• 5 years ago

You should consider going vegan.

I am. Obviously. And it's so easy not to contribute to the demise of animal individuals, that I dont understand so many humans do not seem to care.

kypro• 5 years ago

I love rodents and as someone who's owned rodents (and has had problems with mice and rats in the past) I'm always shocked at how social and intelligent they are. I do think it's sad how dismissive people are about testing on rodents because they're often viewed as dirty, stupid animals because that's not true. That said, I do prefer rodent testing over testing on primates which I find horrifying in most cases.

One thing that gives me some peace is knowing how hard natural lives are for these animals. It's not like rodents have a particularly pain-free, happy life in the wild. I think a better solution than avoiding animal testing all together is just to ensure that the majority of them have good lives.

goldenkey2• 5 years ago

That doesn't give me peace at all. We can not ameliorate the torturous acts we commit by making comparisons to the worst natural scenarios. Santa doesn't exist and we are dirty, stupid monsters.

pvaldes• 5 years ago

Poor animals. Locked up in small confinements.

If what you afraid of is that the rats could suffer from claustrophobia I have good news for you... rats are not people.

We love empty plains under the stars. Rats hate it and love passionately being in narrow safe places.

drekk• 5 years ago

Unless you're willing to test blindly on humans that's not going to change. Our understanding of animal physiology is not purely selfish either, veterinary medicine doesn't exist without animal testing. Besides that, the IRB handles research approval in the US and has very stringent requirements for animal research that increase exponentially depending on the model organism. Saying that they're being tortured carries some heavy implications—rodents only live a year or two to begin with and regulations exist for things like housing them in pairs. If I do research for a few months and then need to harvest brain slices I'm not exactly cutting down the rat in its prime + relative to the NYC rats fighting over a slice of pizza it lived a much nicer life.

I'm vegetarian personally and think we should reduce unnecessary suffering, however the 1% of animal deaths in our society going to the furtherment of knowledge seems like the wrong focus to have. You mentioned you're vegan; if you can't get your peers to stop eating animals (which is totally unnecessary, unhealthy, bad for the planet) I'm not sure how you realistically expect them to line up in place of Remy the rodent for research purposes. Even then, there's a limit to what you can do non-invasively with where our medical knowledge is currently.

My hope is that we refine what the research priorities are in our society + eliminate things like cosmetic testing, but ultimately I don't see an end to medical model organisms unless we can simulate them—and that's hard to do without further medical experimentation.

bdsa• 5 years ago

Did you see Daniel Sloss last night?

hazza_n_dazza• 5 years ago

This is to raise awareness for the mistreatment of rats in laboratory research situations.

Rat Tickling

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