A search for answers in ethics: where animals fit in
February 14, 2023 - Savannah Peat
A rat runs through a maze to reach the other side. Whether there’s a reward strategically placed, the presence of water, or an alteration in the rat’s brain chemistry, it’s a test most people can picture or remember. The goal is to uncover some scientific marvel regarding memory, learning, or anything else that hopefully helps us understand the human and animal mind.
UNM Professor Emeritus John Gluck however, has dedicated his life to ensuring the focus is not just on the end of the maze, but the rodent participant on the inside. He has made sure to ask: in the course of doing research, what do we owe to the animals for their sacrifice? It’s a question which has persisted for many he’s impacted, for decades.
“I just read an email from a man who took a course from me in 1972. The former student was recalling a lab meeting where another student said the rat in the experimental maze that he worked with kept biting him,” Gluck recalled. “However, he found that the rats never bit him because he stroked them and calmed them before he put them to work. He told me he remembered he was worried I was gonna be mad at him for doing that, but I wasn’t. In fact, I told the other students to do the same thing.”
Read more at UNM Newsroom.
