Mice have been observed 'writhing in pain' after having been injected with acetic acid, according to a new report. This is not evidence of more teenage depravity, but Canadian research to test whether mice have empathy towards one another.

Report available at: http://www.the-scientist.com/news/daily/23764/ 

We are deeply troubled when our children commit acts of torture on mice or rats. Yet we readily accept the acts of torture on mice committed by Canadian (and other) scientists - acts that turn my stomach just as much. No matter how creatively we try to justify our cruel experiments on live, conscious animals, the fact is that from the mouse's point of view, it is torture.

According to the research report, empathy is an evolutionary mechanism that maintains social cohesion - and mice, it turns out, do display empathy for each other. A good way to prove to ourselves that we, too, do have empathy, would be to ban cruel experiments on any of Earth's offspring.