He squirmed until her strong hands pulled back his tail and head. Seconds later, ketamine entered his body and he succumbed to its soporific power. She picked him up and regarded him with slight interest, as one regards a salt shaker before pouring out its contents. With deft motions, she lay him on his back onto a metal baking pan, his tiny paws still sticking straight up as if rigor mortis had already set in. It was pitiful seeing all two of his bottom teeth and his tiny paws like little additions to his furry body. At that moment, I dubbed this creature Larry.
Larry’s whole body palpitated wildly and shallowly as she strapped down his four limbs with labeling tape. Next to Larry lay two needles, two tweezers, and a pair of scissors. Using the nail inside her gloved hand, she pinched Larry’s tail against the pan. Immediately, Larry squealed and his chest and abdomen surged upwards, paws straining against the tape. She contemplated this motion and began to massage his chest and belly. It was soothing to Larry – in fact, the massage would help the anesthetic diffuse out of the adipose layer. Soon, it would be coursing through his bloodstream. She pinched the tail again. Larry gave another feeble surge upwards against the tape but did not cry out. “That’s good enough for us,” she spoke. She referred to the arbitrary threshold of pain below which it was deemed ethical to vivisect mice. “I don’t like it when they squeal during the procedure,” she explained.
Larry was still breathing when the fur, skin, fat, and fascia came off his belly. Underneath, his bare intestines squirmed and his liver shook from his palpitations. More and more of his skin came off like patches of clothing;then, his rib cage. The beating heart lay exposed, a pulsating, glistening, burgundy stone. An 18-guage needle pierced through the septum of the left ventricle into the cavity. The mouse gasped. Dark red fluid spurted into the syringe. The needle was thrust in deeper until .5 mL blood was taken. His vena cava were severed and 2.5 mL saline solution was forced down his left ventricle until all the blood rose out of the vena cava and pooled up in and around his body. The heart finally stopped beating.
The rest seemed like dirty work. The blood was mopped up and the organs went one by one into a red bag. After some time, all there was left was the heart, aorta, spinal cord, and the skin underneath. We could have well been looking at the underside of an animal fur rug. The aorta was then excised and stored for further analysis. The rest of the carcass went into the red bag.
I watched two more mice carcass end up in that red bag in the name of Science. Then, I watched my hands send three more there in the name of Practice.
I now, with washed hands, write of their deaths:
6 mice died today. Among them was Larry…
