Has Anyone Done Any Research On Animals At Their Uni?

[ljbaron]

I know that the realm of conducting vivisection on animals is highly secretive and the general public is quickly shown the door when asked about the conditions of animals. With that being said, has anyone conducted experiments on animals such as apes or dogs and could shed some light?

[gangliocytoma]

No apes or dogs at my school. We have mice, rabbits, and rats. I hear that U of T is the only school in Ontario (maybe even Canada) that has monkeys.

 

But yes it is very secretive even with rodents. The animal facility is an unlabelled set of double doors that you need a key card to access. When bringing animals to the lab, the cages must be covered and you must use specific service elevators to avoid common folk. The general public couldn't access the facility if they wanted to.

[ljbaron]

I believe Western has chimps, atleast it says so on their brain/mind institute page. Hidden deep in some fineprint material. 

[SunAndMoon]

I believe Western has chimps, atleast it says so on their brain/mind institute page. Hidden deep in some fineprint material. 

 

they're called grad students...

[Cheers2life]

No apes or dogs at my school. We have mice, rabbits, and rats. I hear that U of T is the only school in Ontario (maybe even Canada) that has monkeys.

 

But yes it is very secretive even with rodents. The animal facility is an unlabelled set of double doors that you need a key card to access. When bringing animals to the lab, the cages must be covered and you must use specific service elevators to avoid common folk. The general public couldn't access the facility if they wanted to.

 

UdeM has monkeys, dogs, cats and even sheeps. I think its quite common across Canada.

[Snowmen]

I know that my university does research on pigs and there are probably more animals being used for research.

[ameltingbanana]

Western as far as I recall has chimps. During my Master's I mainly worked with mice, but I know there were other animals present - rats, dogs, cats (something to do with hearing/nerve conduction research), some sort of chimp/ape, guinea pigs, sheep

[adhominem]

U of A has dogs, cats, rodents, fish, birds, pigs, etc. No monkeys or apes though (that I know of)

 

[RRRAAAWWW]

Ik that many of the UofT hospitals have rodent facilities that have full time staff but are very secretive

[ballsortahard]

Is doing animal research a uncommon thing in science?

[OwnerOfTheTARDIS]

Is doing animal research a uncommon thing in science?

I think it is just very difficult for undergrads to get involved in animal research (compared to research on Drosophila or cell culture for example). Animal research is definitely common in some fields of science, less so in others.

[Dentiste]

It's very common to do research with animals, mostly with mice. It really depends on the field your working in, it goes from mice, to pigs and in some very rare locations they still have monkeys. At most research facilities, it is not indicated were they keep the animals and accessing those places is highly regulated, so you could walk by them everyday without ever noticing. 

[Cheers2life]

Is doing animal research a uncommon thing in science?

 

seems to be almost necessary in translational studies where humain disease are studied, you need to have a model to be able to understand the pathology and test some compounds for future treatments. Most very studied humain disease like cancer, diabetes, cardiac and neuro pathologies all have animal models, mostly mice but also monkeys for more complex phenomenon. 

[Waves]

I believe Western has chimps, atleast it says so on their brain/mind institute page. Hidden deep in some fineprint material. 

So is that what's inside the super mysterious West Valley Building...?

[OwnerOfTheTARDIS]

I'm not sure that it has anything to do with undergrads, I think you're right that it has to do with the kind of research. Almost every neuro undergrad at my school did research with animals. One neuro prof worked in a different facility with butterflies, but the rest of the faculty worked in the main building, which was all mice, rats, and gerbils.

Maybe depends on the size of university I attend a smaller school and the animal labs are run almost exclusively by graduate students. Cool that undergrads at other schools have those opportunities.

[Omnia_proba]

I do work with invertebrates, which aren't covered under the Canadian Council on Animal Care (CCAC) guidelines, but I am a student representative on the institutional animal care committee (IACC) at my university. In order to be eligible for public grant funding, every institution that does work with vertebrates must have an active IACC that keeps track of protocols, SOPs, etc., and reports to the CCAC. The CCAC aims for transparency and encourages IACCs to do the same, but it's often a bit of a balancing act because certain uses of animals in research that meet established ethical guidelines may still have the potential to cause a stir amongst the lay public. Nonetheless, most IACCs have at least some information available online. Furthermore, in addition to faculty, veterinary, and student representation, each IACC must have a community representative. 

 

Frankly, if my experience is at all representative, most of what IACCs do is pretty uncontroversial and pedantic (reviewing SOPs for undergrad ecology classes going to watch birds is really not that sexy). That's just my two cents though.