National Institutes of Health are working on reducing animal testing

Good news! Will President Trump push for less animal testing? We hope so! All the President's women!

"Nicole Kleinstreuer, a computational toxicologist at the National Institutes of Health, over the past few months. Kleinstreuer was thrust into the spotlight earlier this year when she was named acting deputy director and chosen to help lead a new office working to reduce the use of animals in NIH-funded research. ..."

"... In these roles, she led interagency and international efforts to promote new approach methodologies (NAMs), reduce animal testing, and integrate computational modeling, artificial intelligence, and systems toxicology into regulatory science. ..."

ScienceAdviser

Nikole Kleinstreuer, Acting NIH Deputy Director for Program Coordination, Planning, and Strategic Initiatives (official photo)

There is a wild hog population explosion going on in Texas and other states for three decades

Oink, oink! 😊 Like birds in metropolitan areas, wild hogs know how to proliferate.

"Wild hogs are exceptionally hard to kill. They can leap over fences and run 30 miles per hour on open ground, making them difficult to shoot. And they're smart, learning to avoid traps if other members of their group have been captured.

But after three decades of watching their population numbers explode across Texas and other parts of the U.S., officials believe a solution might be in sight.

Six years ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture launched a pilot program utilizing helicopters and specially designed traps to slow the spread of wild hogs. Now, a bipartisan group of senators — including U.S. Sen. John Cornyn — are pushing to take the program nationwide. ..."

Can a USDA effort to kill feral hogs survive spending cuts?

Experimente an Tieren: So soll das Leid von Versuchstieren verringert werden

Gute Nachrichten! Schätzungen zufolge werden etwa 100-200 Millionen Labortiere pro Jahr bei Tierversuchen umgebracht.

Es schadet nicht hin und wieder mal daran zu erinnern! Hoffentlich, werden wir bald auf so viele Tierversuche verzichten können und bessere Lösungen haben

Experimente an Tieren: So soll das Leid von Versuchstieren verringert werden "In Hessen erforschen drei Professoren, wie sich Tierexperimente vermeiden, verringern oder verbessern lassen. Eine Veterinärmedizinerin in Gießen will vor allem dafür sorgen, dass Versuchstiere respektvoller und schonender behandelt werden."

Do Invertebrates Have Emotions?

Recommendable! This is a comprehensive overview article. Why should emotions be confined to vertebrates? How necessary is a nervous system or are there alternatives?

"... Decades ago, scientists and lawmakers had all but reached a consensus that invertebrates could not feel pain, let alone other emotions like joy or fear. Recently, however, evidence is mounting that invertebrates are more than just reflexive beings. Experiments in bees, crabs, and octopuses show that some invertebrate animals can learn from painful experiences, have positive and negative emotion-like states, and might even experience a range of other emotions beyond pain and pleasure. ...
Still, many scientists remain extremely skeptical, and the question of whether invertebrates can experience emotions is hotly debated. ..."

From the abstract:

"If the UK joins a handful of other nations to recognize the sentience of invertebrates, such as cephalopod mollusks and decapod crustaceans, by, for example, prohibiting the boiling of live lobsters, this will be based on evidence that emotions and felt experiences (i.e., sentience) are not limited to animals close to humans, such as the mammals. This topic has been heavily debated in both affective neuroscience (how to define an emotion?) and philosophy (what is the moral relevance of animal experiences?), but a consensus on the criteria for and implications of recognizing animal sentience seems to be emerging"

Do Invertebrates Have Emotions? | The Scientist Magazine® And how do scientists go about answering that question?

The question of animal emotions (no public access) Do animals, including invertebrates, have felt emotions and does this morally matter?