Torturous research
Yep. Bunch of scientists in Montreal thought, hey, let’s torture some mice to see if they show it in their facial expressions.
I happened upon a news article today, a news article on Yahoo that tells how a recent study has found that ‘lab mice show pain with facial expressions’. Now, I’ve a few issues with that.
First off, no-bloody-shit-Sherlock. Of course they show pain on their faces. They’ve even gone so far as to say that this is “the first scientific evidence of facial expression of pain in a non-human species”. Are you bloody kidding me? Have you seen a cat in pain, a dog in pain, heck, a bird in pain? There are obvious signs, in the face, of animals experiencing pain or discomfort. There are also other physical characteristics for creatures experiencing pain, that are more specific to the species of animal. I just can’t believe that they’re kidding themselves with this crap, that because all previous evidence wasn’t ‘scientific’ then it wasn’t valid.
Want to know how they figured this out? Yep, they tortured them. Heinous bastards. Here’s a quote as to just how they tortured the mice to record their facial expressions.
“This was done by injecting stomachs and paws with pain-inducing substances, including acetic acid, mustard oil, and capsaicin, the “hot” ingredient in chillies. Animals were also injected with a chemical that triggers bladder cystitis, and made to suffer nerve damage. The “pain faces” were identified by comparing video images of non-suffering mice with those in pain.”
What the hell are these people, socio-paths? They had to compare the expressions of mice who weren’t being tortured to those who were to notice that their expressions changed? The poor mice exhibited the following facial expressions. “Orbital tightening (eye squeezing), nose bulge - a rounded extension of skin on the bridge of the nose - bulging cheeks, ears drawn apart and back, and whiskers held against the face or standing on end.”
How could anyone deliberately hurt these creatures and then watch film footage of their pain? This makes me angry, and I have to say, this study better be put to extremely good use. Otherwise they were torturing these lab mice for no reason at all.
