Last week's government shutdown shuttered national parks and furloughed more than 800,000 federal workers. But Outliers was left wondering, what about the federal mice? And don't forget the federal rats.
Never fear. Plans were in place to make sure the more than 1.3 million mice, 390,000 fish, 63,000 rats and 3,900 “nonhuman primates,” all wards of the government, stay well-fed, because of an exemption in HHS' contingency staffing plan for the shutdown. Plans called for the massive menagerie to be maintained by 568 workers for the 24 institutes and research centers across the country operated by the National Institutes of Health.
“Many of these animals are priceless and have taken generations to breed,” the plan said.
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