The Mouse Exchange: What can curiosity-driven public engagement activities contribute to dialogues about animal research?

Abstract

Despite efforts by the industry to be more open about the use of animals in research, opportunities for the public to learn about this are limited by the traditional public engagement format, which typically follows a knowledge-deficit approach. Coupled with barriers around public willingness to learn about something that stirs up complex feelings, there is a need to develop new public engagement activities that allow for open, nuanced, curiosity-driven explorations of animal research. The Mouse Exchange (MX) achieves this by allowing participants to feel in control of their experience, and to explore the hesitancy, distrust, suspicion, anxieties, and guilt that some associate with animal research. The MX approaches openness via focusing on the making and supply of animals used in research, rather than on the experiment itself. The MX has no script, but rather creates a space where participants converse and craft, becoming curious, creative, and imaginative about the topic as a research mouse, stitched together from felt fabric, forms in their hands. Through this process of crafting, an attachment can form between maker and mouse that gives participants a different stake in animal research. We argue that the MX offers a new, valuable approach to engaging publics in discussions around animal research.

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ORCID for Emma Roe: orcid.org/0000-0003-4674-2133

ORCID for Sara Peres: orcid.org/0000-0002-9537-144X

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