Jackson Laboratory

What they don’t tell you about is the animal cruelty that goes on inside this place, all in the name of «research» (check it out online)! On a recent family trip to Bar Harbor, I felt sad to learn that thousands of tortured animals were in that building. A bit of a weird vibe seeing the facility perched in the midst of such extraordinary natural beauty. A bit of a vacation spoiler, to say the least. I would bet their guided tour doesn’t show you the animals in the worst of their testing process – creepy.

We learned on a lobster boat tour from Captain John about the great medical research occurring at Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. He told us about the 28 Nobel Prize winners connected with Jackson Labs and recommended taking a tour of the lab. We took a tour the next day.
What a great place. It reminded me of other upper echelon academic institutes — MIT, CalTech, Stanford, Chicago. The campus is well situated in the seaside hills just outside the little town of Bar Harbor. The buildings and facilities are state of the art. Peaking through the windows of lab doors confirmed there is a lot of research activity taking place here.
What’s even more interesting about this place is that they also raise and sell laboratory mice to research labs across America. Their website explains it all.
This was a nice addition to my visits to other halls of academia. I definitely recommend a visit.