Laboratory animal welfare and human attitudes: A cross-sectional survey on heterospecific play or "rat tickling".

ABSTRACT:

Introduction

Laboratory rat welfare is critically influenced by laboratory animal personnel through their implementation, or lack of implementation, of various enrichment techniques. One such promising technique is heterospecific play, or "rat tickling", which mimics aspects of rat rough-and-tumble play and can contribute to improving welfare, but may be infrequently implemented. The theory of planned behavior can be used to study implementation by measuring intentions and beliefs about rat tickling, including behavioral attitudes (whether it is good or bad), subjective norms (whether there is social/professional pressure to provide it), and control beliefs (whether they feel in control of providing it). Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify current rat tickling pr

SUBMITTER: LaFollette MR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6693744 | biostudies-literature | 2019

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature