A scheme of mice and men best laid aside

IN WHAT must rank as some of the most bizarre and useless animal research, scientists have determined that laboratory mice when in pain display human-like facial expressions.

A "mouse grimace scale" was constructed to measure pain based on five distinct "pain faces". The pious hope of the scientists is that the work will assist research and help prevent unnecessary suffering in mice. Surely the fact that they grimaced at all was evidence of pain, while the injection of pain-inducing substances such as acetic acid and mustard oil might just have given a clue that pain was being suffered.

It is hard to imagine research more likely to bring vehement protests from the ranks of anti-vivisectionists and campaigners against animal cruelty. Most of us accept the need for animal testing and research only reluctantly, and on the strict proviso that such research has to be shown to be absolutely necessary. But were these experiments absolutely necessary? To the question: "how would the human face react if the stomach was filled with acetic acid?" the answer is so glaringly obvious as not to require further experimentation. Are mice so different?

Trap a mouse in a cage, let in a cat and a facial grimace would soon become obvious. Trap a human, let in a lion and we would have other things to do than measure facial grimace.