Music Hath Charms for Other Species
The Washington Post, September 13, 2009
Leave it to a cellist to conceive the idea of playing music at high speed to gauge animals' emotional responses to it ["It's Music to These Monkeys' Ears — and Also Their Hearts"]...

Protecting the Amiable Rat
The New York Times, July 31, 2007
As a biologist who has kept companion rats, I can appreciate Natalie Angier's new fascination with these remarkable creatures. By noting how complex and personable rats are, she also presents good reasons to stop using them in experiments...

Of rats and hooligans
New York Times, August 1, 2006
“Nice Rats, Nasty Rats” reminded me of how much power we have over other animals. One could easily conclude that rats and other creatures are all trapped within their genetic heritage. But it isn’t so. An individual’s social environment also greatly influences personality and behavior. Most rats are ill treated by humans, and they naturally have evolved to mistrust and flee from us...

The inner life of mice
New York Times, February 14, 2006
The world's largest land mammals suffer in captivity, and so do the smallest. Despite their small size, mice are thinking, feeling creatures with wants and needs and a capacity to suffer. In the lab, racks of tiny ''shoe box'' cages are routinely supplied only with a water bottle, a sprinkle of sawdust and lumps of processed chow to be nibbled through the bars...

More fun for animals
New Scientist, June 25, 2005
Your section "Animals and us" was a timely reminder of the metamorphosis taking place in our awareness of the experiences of other animals (4 June, p 42). The way animals respond flexibly and complexly to their surroundings should leave no doubt that they lead conscious, emotional lives. Unfortunately, while there has been much scientific interest in the negative aspects of animal existence - their pain and suffering - positive aspects have been neglected...

Time of a whale
New Scientist, October 16, 2004
Paul Chambers's engaging piece on Harriet, the 173-year-old Galapagos tortoise, claims that she is the world's oldest known living animal (11 September, p 38). Some anonymous whales are probably decades older...

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