
Why don't rats get the same ethical protections as primates? - pondemic
https://aeon.co/essays/why-dont-rats-get-the-same-ethical-protections-as-primates
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ijpsud
Some interesting experiments on rat empathy from the article:

> "It all began with a study in which the rats refused to press a lever to
> obtain food when that lever also delivered a shock to a fellow rat in an
> adjacent cage. The rats would rather starve than witness a rat suffering.
> Follow-up studies found that rats would press a lever to lower a rat who was
> suspended from a harness; that they would refuse to walk down a path in a
> maze if it resulted in a shock delivered to another rat; and that rats who
> had been shocked themselves were less likely to allow other rats to be
> shocked, having been through the discomfort themselves. Rats care for one
> another."

> "In 2011, the issue of rats’ empathy resurfaced when a group of scientists
> found that rats will reliably free other rats who are trapped inside a tube.
> It was not that they were merely curious or wanted to play with the
> apparatus: if it was empty or contained a toy rat, they would tend to ignore
> it. And the tube wasn’t easy to open – it required effort and skill – so it
> seems that the rats really wanted to free their fellow rat."

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masonic
That latter example was shown on a PBS Nova ScienceNow episode.

