Laboratory Rodent Metaphors

This paper sketches two intertwined strands of metaphors associated with laboratory rodents.The Žrst focuses on the idea of medical/scientiŽc progress; in this context, the paper looks at laboratory rodents often depicted (in advertising for laboratory products) as epitomizing medical triumph or serving as helpers or saviors. The second strand concerns the ambiguous status of the laboratory rodent who is both an animal (bites) and not an animal (data).The paper argues that, partly because of these ambiguous and multiple meanings, the rodent in the laboratory is doubly “othered”—Žrst in the way that animals so often are made other to ourselves and then other in the relationship of the animal in the laboratory to other animals. Exclusively on mice, rats, and other animals whose use is unregulated.Rats are nonhuman animals carrying an enormous weight of metaphor and meaning throughout the world; rats of all kinds are entwined with human history. …show more content…
For this task, ironically, they must be elevated from the gutter and cleansed of all their ŽŽfilth. In this paper, drawing on representations from various sources, I want to explore some of the meanings of “the laboratory rat” or “laboratory rodent.” I start with the rats, partly because I am particularly familiar with them in laboratories. However, much of the argument applies also to mice, and I draw also on representations of more generalized rodents. At times, these two different kinds of rodent may be practically interchangeable in their use in scientiŽc research and their histories as speciŽcally bred animals in the