Urgent Washington, Pennsylvania 30 lab rats need rescue within 30 days!

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Rattymouse

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Urgent, there are 30 male lab rats that are 3-4 months old that are needed to be picked up from Washington and Jefferson Colleges in Pennsylvania, if not they will be euthanized in 30 days. Please contact Lynn A. Wilson at [email protected]

*The contact email changed, it's now [email protected]
They changed it cause they were apparently being swarmed with feeder breeders trying to get their hands on them so they're screening people now.

ratsneedrescue-washingtonpa-479.jpg
 
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Can't help as not in the US

But someone needs to educate that univ about more humane methods that are used by univs such as the computer program Sniffy the rat ..... there is absolutely no longer any excuse for using animals in univ classes or in research
 
Hi,

You may also contact:
Email: Managers at pittsburghratloversclub dot org (Replace at with @ and dot with a period for accurate email, please.)

They are working on placing the rats.

Thank you,
Raquel
 
Hi SQ,

I will pass your comment to the people handling the rat placement for them to share it with the lab animal facility staff.

Thank you,
Raquel
 
Is this the same school that dumped their lab rats at the end of the spring semester last year? While I would love to have Long Evans rats, this is an irresponsible thing to do every year...
 
I try not to judge, but this situation bothers me more than most of them. Isn't it ironic that these rats are purposefully bred for LONG LIFE SPAN, and then are euthanized at 4-5 months old?
 
Hi SQ,

I will pass your comment to the people handling the rat placement for them to share it with the lab animal facility staff.

Thank you,
Raquel

Psychology courses at the two universities in this city use Sniffy the rat software instead of real animals. There are many software programs, including dissection programs that replace the use of real animals and are said to also be better student learning experiences ......

As for research, from what I have read about research being done by research scientists in various labs, it seems technology has made the use of animals obsolete as the technology not only replaces the use of animals but also provides better, and more reliable data.
 
Hi,

The president of the rescue that finds homes for the lab rats replied about the use of lab rats in this case:

"All,
Just so you know, and please someone tell the Rat Shack Forum people:
The professor is using live lab rats because she is training psych students on various training and reward methodology. They teach the lab rats to run a maze, or retrieve an object, and also teach them to play soccer with little soccer balls and two "goals", one at each end of a field. The rats have a great time. One of the things they are studying ( the students) is whether the rats learn the tasks faster, or work harder, if they are rewarded differently … rewarded each time a task is done correctly, or rewarded every other time a task is done correctly, or every third time … etc. This is all about training and reward methods for thinking beings, and cannot be done by Sniffy the computer rat :0)
The rats get handled, get to play, and then we have adopted them to good homes. All in all a very good thing for the rats. And the students love it too.
Lindsay"

Thank you,
Raquel
 
Thank you, SQ! I got this reply: "Professor Wilson told me she had tried Sniffy, and he did not satisfy what she was trying to achieve, so she went back to live rats." I repeat, however, that the rescue always finds good homes for the lab rats afterward.
 
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