Developing a close bond with research animals (2002)

Hunnicutt, T.

Abstract

Developing a close bond with research animals can only be a good thing. I have seen the results of both and was very disturbed when people seemed to regard the animals only as test subjects and not as living beings. I think that Mrs. Van Loo's comments are absolutely correct. I see where some discussion of objectivity and partiality was initiated. I am a caregiver and have never been a researcher or scientist of any sort, but it seems to me that we get hung up on trying to divorce our emotions from what we hope to be our objectivity. I do not think that any normally functioning human being in the world does anything for any reason other than emotional. Sure, research is done to answer questions, but isn't the premise of all research to make human (or animal) lives better? If you want to make lives better, it's because of emotion, not because you are logically attached to life.I see no good coming from trying to separate the two and I think it's impossible to completely do so anyway. As a caregiver, I logically know that by coming to work reliably, on time and performing the tasks that I am assigned reasonably well is good for my job security. But I don't come to work every day with this uppermost in my mind. I am thinking about the animals that I know need me to be there and my coworkers too-if I don't show up that's just that much more work they have to do too. If I didn't think about the animals in my care, I wouldn't notice that someone seems a little off today, he's not participating in social activities like he normally does. I wouldn't notice that one animal suddenly flinches when I feed her something with a spoon, indicating a possible tooth problem.I've seen caregivers that treat the animals with complete indifference miss a million details that they should have noticed. They don't clean well, they are callous to the animals and forget important things. I have watched animals cringe or cower when these individuals enter the room. I have seen these individuals breaking for lunch rather than take a few extra minutes for enrichment. Their emotions may not be absent from the situation, but they're focused somewhere else and so they don't do a good job since they aren't emotionally vested in the outcome.