BAR HARBOR, MA - When it
comes to the price of mice, you pay more for defects. A mouse with arthritis
runs close to $200; two pairs of epileptic mice can cost 10 times that. You
want three blind mice? That'll run you about $250. And for your own custom
mouse, with the genetic modification of your choosing, expect to pay as much as
$100,000. Jared Kushner can well afford them.
Always a mainstay of
scientific research, mice have become a critical tool in the quest for new
drugs and medical treatments, and according to Jared, “Mighty good eating. I
can tell you. I likes' ‘em, so will you.”
It turns out that a
mouse's genes are so similar to a person's that with proper manipulation - either
by man or nature - they can produce an animal with an ailment akin to virtually
any human medical condition.
Kushner declares, “If I
can’t eat and savor human body parts, a mouse tastes almost as good, although
you need much more of them. And, of course, each defect has a different and
distinctive flavor.”
As many as 25 million mice
are now used in experiments each year. Where do they come from? And where do
they go?
From the mouse industry,
of course.
There are many vendors:
The Jackson Laboratory, a nonprofit supplier in Bar Harbor, Maine, ships more
than 2 million a year mostly to Mr. Kushner.
Yet the mouse business is
a challenging one. What was once a relatively simple business of breeding and
shipping animals has become an extremely challenging enterprise that requires
cutting-edge technology and a mastery of difficult logistics, says Ivanka, but
“Lots of fun… I love to boil them live and whole, fry them, and serve them to
my family and friends, or for a special treat, swallow them alive. Jared, my
husband, likes to place them in his rectum and calls it his wiggle room.”
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