[Applause]
so for a time I lived alone in a cute
little garage apartment downtown during
a particularly rainy spell the garage
flooded in my apartment became infested
with rats now my landlord did what he
could to get rid of them but it went on
for a few weeks and it got so bad that
you could hear them in the kitchen
opening cabinets the final straw for me
was when one of them climbed into my bed
and died on my pillow now obviously I
left immediately but what I couldn’t
leave behind was that fear so fast
forward a few years to the summer of
2017 in my junior year of college I was
invited to join the animal research lab
as a research assistant now I was an
undergraduate student with dreams of
going on to graduate school so I knew
this was a great opportunity for me
there’s just one problem the lab uses a
breed of rats for learning and behavior
studies and I still had that fear
sitting in me fortunately for me my
mentor knew my story she invited me to
join and work at my own pace so that I
could achieve my goals and get research
experience it was a decision that I had
to make and it was a hard choice to
determine if I could work in the same
area as rats when I first started I was
so afraid of rats that I couldn’t carry
one of them in a cage I would stand on
the outside of the room with sweaty
palms and a racing heart when another
research assistant would transfer them
in and out of the cages I kept watching
them though from my safe space on the
outside looking in
the cages they’re in or a plastic
rectangle and I have a metal grate top
in the lid is a small area where you can
give food and water without having to
touch the animal it’s a sturdy cage
thick so the first lesson I learned was
that the rats couldn’t escape that meant
that I could help transport them from
room to room and eventually I got to
where I could help feed them as well
then I began to see what they could do
now those guys are not much different
than you were I and what motivates them
you just offer them a sweet treat they
will do just about anything you ask for
a cheerio or some fruity pebbles now in
general as a species rats learn
incredibly fast and much like children
or Pepe’s you can see their
personalities emerge now some of those
guys are high-strung and they’re going
to require every ounce of your attention
some of them are laid-back they just
want to get the job done so they can
enjoy a snack some of them work really
really fast
some of them honestly they never get the
job done but I saw them and their
individual differences that’s when I
knew they had won me over and from then
on I was no longer an outsider looking
the surprising part about this
experience was when I got bit I
understood then that something within me
had truly changed towards them
Rizzo bit me twice on this same finger
just five days apart and he bit me hard
enough that my right middle finger will
always carry the scars I don’t blame
Rizzo for biting me though it was
entirely my fault
because of how I reached for him so what
if you walked up to a stranger in the
grocery store and you placed your hand
directly in their face now the only way
that Rizzo has to communicate with me is
through his behavior and unlike that
stranger Rizzo can’t tell me to back off
and give him space the responsibility
falls on me as his caretaker to
understand what he is trying to tell me
now as humans even the most nurturing
and animal loving of us think of
ourselves as being pretty high on the
evolutionary ladder and in a lot of ways
we are but one of the things I learned
about working with rats is that our
higher order thinking and consciousness
puts a greater burden of caring for
now the only way that Rizzo can
communicate with me is through his
behavior can you imagine what it would
be like to not be able to communicate
with the only other living species you
interact with Rizzo has no voice to
speak to me with he has no way to write
me a message and he has no sign language
ability the only way he can communicate
with me his body language and behavioral
cues now how this translates to us as
humans interacting with each other
that’s the lesson that Rizzo and his
brothers taught me see when humans
interact with each other we respond to
events or situations from our own
perspective and that’s why you often
hear a phrase along the lines of hurt
people hurt other people as an
explanation of why some people behave
the way they do that egocentrism is what
is keeping us from communicating with
each other no matter what species were
talking about the lesson for me was in
acknowledging that Rizzo’s experience
Arisa as awareness comes from a
different experience than mine what I
learned was that we could reach deeper
within ourselves than our spoken or
written language now despite the bad
press often associated with rats Rizzo
and his brothers don’t bite first and
then try to figure out what’s going on
around them these guys respond when you
give them the time to after listening to
what’s going on in the lab after looking
around them to see what’s going on and
after smelling their environment and the
people that are handling them now we too
can slow down our reaction
and look for the truth that is hidden
between the words now I’m not going to
suggest that you start smelling the
people that are around you of course and
I’ll even acknowledge that making sure
that you use the right words for a
situation is important but what if we
took it even further and took an extra
step to listen and look for the truth
that is hidden between the words when I
learned how to care for Rizzo and his
brothers with empathy and compassion I
began to seek out their company I
learned how to listen to them I learned
how to really see them I learned how to
respond to them after getting a sense of
what was going on in their environment
instead of reacting from pain or fear we
as humans can also be receptive to each
other I believe we can change our
response set from fear to love the same way the rats changed me thank you
so for a time I lived alone in a cute
little garage apartment downtown during
a particularly rainy spell the garage
flooded in my apartment became infested
with rats now my landlord did what he
could to get rid of them but it went on
for a few weeks and it got so bad that
you could hear them in the kitchen
opening cabinets the final straw for me
was when one of them climbed into my bed
and died on my pillow now obviously I
left immediately but what I couldn’t
leave behind was that fear so fast
forward a few years to the summer of
2017 in my junior year of college I was
invited to join the animal research lab
as a research assistant now I was an
undergraduate student with dreams of
going on to graduate school so I knew
this was a great opportunity for me
there’s just one problem the lab uses a
breed of rats for learning and behavior
studies and I still had that fear
sitting in me fortunately for me my
mentor knew my story she invited me to
join and work at my own pace so that I
could achieve my goals and get research
experience it was a decision that I had
to make and it was a hard choice to
determine if I could work in the same
area as rats when I first started I was
so afraid of rats that I couldn’t carry
one of them in a cage I would stand on
the outside of the room with sweaty
palms and a racing heart when another
research assistant would transfer them
in and out of the cages I kept watching
them though from my safe space on the
outside looking in
the cages they’re in or a plastic
rectangle and I have a metal grate top
in the lid is a small area where you can
give food and water without having to
touch the animal it’s a sturdy cage
thick so the first lesson I learned was
that the rats couldn’t escape that meant
that I could help transport them from
room to room and eventually I got to
where I could help feed them as well
then I began to see what they could do
now those guys are not much different
than you were I and what motivates them
you just offer them a sweet treat they
will do just about anything you ask for
a cheerio or some fruity pebbles now in
general as a species rats learn
incredibly fast and much like children
or Pepe’s you can see their
personalities emerge now some of those
guys are high-strung and they’re going
to require every ounce of your attention
some of them are laid-back they just
want to get the job done so they can
enjoy a snack some of them work really
really fast
some of them honestly they never get the
job done but I saw them and their
individual differences that’s when I
knew they had won me over and from then
on I was no longer an outsider looking
the surprising part about this
experience was when I got bit I
understood then that something within me
had truly changed towards them
Rizzo bit me twice on this same finger
just five days apart and he bit me hard
enough that my right middle finger will
always carry the scars I don’t blame
Rizzo for biting me though it was
entirely my fault
because of how I reached for him so what
if you walked up to a stranger in the
grocery store and you placed your hand
directly in their face now the only way
that Rizzo has to communicate with me is
through his behavior and unlike that
stranger Rizzo can’t tell me to back off
and give him space the responsibility
falls on me as his caretaker to
understand what he is trying to tell me
now as humans even the most nurturing
and animal loving of us think of
ourselves as being pretty high on the
evolutionary ladder and in a lot of ways
we are but one of the things I learned
about working with rats is that our
higher order thinking and consciousness
puts a greater burden of caring for
now the only way that Rizzo can
communicate with me is through his
behavior can you imagine what it would
be like to not be able to communicate
with the only other living species you
interact with Rizzo has no voice to
speak to me with he has no way to write
me a message and he has no sign language
ability the only way he can communicate
with me his body language and behavioral
cues now how this translates to us as
humans interacting with each other
that’s the lesson that Rizzo and his
brothers taught me see when humans
interact with each other we respond to
events or situations from our own
perspective and that’s why you often
hear a phrase along the lines of hurt
people hurt other people as an
explanation of why some people behave
the way they do that egocentrism is what
is keeping us from communicating with
each other no matter what species were
talking about the lesson for me was in
acknowledging that Rizzo’s experience
Arisa as awareness comes from a
different experience than mine what I
learned was that we could reach deeper
within ourselves than our spoken or
written language now despite the bad
press often associated with rats Rizzo
and his brothers don’t bite first and
then try to figure out what’s going on
around them these guys respond when you
give them the time to after listening to
what’s going on in the lab after looking
around them to see what’s going on and
after smelling their environment and the
people that are handling them now we too
can slow down our reaction
and look for the truth that is hidden
between the words now I’m not going to
suggest that you start smelling the
people that are around you of course and
I’ll even acknowledge that making sure
that you use the right words for a
situation is important but what if we
took it even further and took an extra
step to listen and look for the truth
that is hidden between the words when I
learned how to care for Rizzo and his
brothers with empathy and compassion I
began to seek out their company I
learned how to listen to them I learned
how to really see them I learned how to
respond to them after getting a sense of
what was going on in their environment
instead of reacting from pain or fear we
as humans can also be receptive to each
other I believe we can change our
response set from fear to love the same way the rats changed me thank you
Please follow and like us: