141–150 of 175 posts
>> a 4½-foot cube—with everything a mouse could ever desire They likely desired a larger cube.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't think it's that surprising, especially as an occasional result. Consider that surviving severe overpopulation is trauma. Survivors are physically and/or psychologically sick. They're not good breeders and at this point. Happens frequently in aquariums. Guppies breed like guppies. Overpopulate, then die back. The proximate causes can be varied. Maybe there's an ammonia spike, oxygen deficiency or other consequ…
> Consider that surviving severe overpopulation is trauma Recently there was an article posted on HN about how trauma experienced by parents are passed down to children through (a term that means it's related to activation of genes, I believe, but not DNA itself... I thought it was metagenomics but upon looking at the definition I don't think that's it). Perhaps the trauma of overpopulation activated or deactivated s…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Once in grad school I went to a talk where another grad student was presenting on his fear research with mice. Many powerpoint details unfold of the hell he and his advisor had contrived to make the mice chronically afraid, and to be able to quantify the fear induced and its effects. I learned that when mice get scared enough they shit excessively. In the presentation of results he lingers on a graph, and says, for e…
There have been a couple times where I've said something like "I'm sorry, I'm not seeing what's so funny here" when people are laughing about something serious. You can either look like a humorless dick or you people snap out of it and then respect you for acting like an adult
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Same boat. I'm not a vegan, and I try my absolute best to avoid thinking about what we put animals through. It certainly sits in a specific category of intrusive thoughts. The only real analog to this in my mind is being aware of my own mortality; I just avoid that thought and shove it out of my mind. Occasionally my comparatively relaxed life is harshly interrupted by an awareness of these facts and I'm ripped back…
Why try your absolute best to not think about it, instead of taking some steps to reduce your animal consumption and actually feel better about it? I get that something like mortality is an intrusive thought that you can do nothing about, but it's pretty easy to take steps to reduce meat consumption and actually feel better about it.
Caring about others isn't fun.
Ever since learning of the Mouse Utopia (where did "mouse 'heaven'" come from?) experiment, I found it interesting that its results spoke more directly of LOCALIZED overpopulation. In a human context: cities. Many of the pathologies observed in the experiment are very starkly displayed in human cities. I've always found it odd that those most interested with overpopulation concerns also advocate for cities as part of…
One of the worst jobs i ever had, occasionally required us to drown some mice. Excess population / euthanized "feeders" for pet snakes. The method was to put several mice into a small wire cage, and then submerge the cage in water. Usually I filled a bucket with hot water, beforehand, and made this operation fast as possible. Dunk and done. One day I came across a cow orker attempting to do this job (I had been busy…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Consider that surviving severe overpopulation is trauma Recently there was an article posted on HN about how trauma experienced by parents are passed down to children through (a term that means it's related to activation of genes, I believe, but not DNA itself... I thought it was metagenomics but upon looking at the definition I don't think that's it). Perhaps the trauma of overpopulation activated or deactivated s…
Word you’re looking for is probably “epigenetic”.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It sounds like they had put some thought into which methods cause the least suffering. It doesn't sound like they were trying to skirt the edge of what the ethics committee would allow, which is how I read your comment. Please let me know if I have misinterpreted. As to possible alternative methods, those include freezing, which could be quite prolonged and painful, and blunt force trauma, which could be difficult/am…
Your assumption is that the mice must die. Given that its the case, you then wonder about the most effective means of killing them. But, pushing back on your assumption, what value can there possibly be in killing baby mice?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Your assumption is that the mice must die. Given that its the case, you then wonder about the most effective means of killing them. But, pushing back on your assumption, what value can there possibly be in killing baby mice?
Feeding snakes?