comments A controversial new study claims that more than 110 million of the mammals used in American scientific laboratories for experiments are either mice or rats — an assertion that, if true, is astonishing for what it implies about humanity's attitudes towards the tiny, intelligent creatures. The paper, which was published in the scholarly journal Scientific Reports last week, was written by Larry Carbone DVM PhD, who has specialty certifications in Animal Welfare and in Laboratory Animal Medicine. To explain how he arrived at his shocking number, Carbone wrote to Salon that he used a different method for counting lab mice and lab rats than Speaking of Research, an advocacy group that pushes the use of animals in scientific testing. He emphasized to Salon that he cannot say with certainty how many mice and rats are in these laboratories.