When You Hear What Happens When They Put Lab Mice in Nature, You Might Rethink Your Entire Life

"Lab mice are subjected to countless horrors during their short lives, from being injected with cancerous cells to getting exposed to microplastics or ending up dosed with cocaine. It's a controversial research standard that has long been criticized by animal rights activists. Even some in the scientific community argue they deserve better treatment, much like their human counterparts in clinical trials."

"Scientists have long debated whether we can or should apply what we learn from lab mouse-based experiments to other animals or humans, especially when it comes to health-related research. "It's a new approach to understanding more about how experiences shape subsequent responses to the world, and the hope is that what we learn from these mice will have more generalizability to other animals and to ourselves as well," Sheehan added."

Lab mice undergo invasive procedures including injections of cancerous cells, microplastics exposure, and dosing with addictive drugs, often raising welfare concerns. Releasing laboratory-bred mice into large enclosed fields where they can experience grass and dirt markedly reduces observable anxiety, with behavioral changes occurring even in individuals with established anxiety histories. Naturalistic housing leads to healthier lives and yields data that may be more reliable and generalizable to other animals and humans. Researchers measured anxiety using the elevated plus maze, a standard cross-shaped test. Rewilding offers an approach to assess how enriched experiences shape subsequent responses and experimental outcomes.

Read at Futurism