When I was in college I spent many all night studying sessions in the science building. The computer labs were on the first floor. There were psychology labs in the basement. A few times graduate students would take me down to see their lab white mice. On the surface, each mouse looked alike. But when you really observe carefully, each is unique.
One could have a long tail, significantly longer than all the others. Another has a bigger head. The third has a pointed nose. A fourth one has longer fur, enough that we all could see it. Of course each one was tattooed behind its ear a special number. Since they only run in mace, no medication was given to any of them; I asked what happened to them when the series of experiments end. Do they get sold? Are they allowed to breed? A high school mate of mine went to Vietnam and ate rat meat sold on the roadside.
My pals were appalled! The very idea! Eating my mice. How dare you? I was surprised that they become attached to their experiment animals. Unless further experiments were planned as continuation, they were put to sleep using chloroform. That was the last time anyone brought me to see their darling mice.
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