Animal Awareness / Animal Experimentation

Animal Experimentation:
One Student's Perspective

"The student who refuses to participate in an activity which is or appears to be cruel should be encouraged rather than discouraged. Compassion is far harder to teach than anatomy."
-- Neal Barnard, M.D.

Dissection, by Heather Gorn

Video footage from inside Carolina Biological, one of the world's largest biological supply companies, displays the true atrocity and utter cruelty of dissection: animals are harassed, injured, and killed by jeering and insensitive employees. Many animals that are forced into the gas chambers come out alive; cats are seen moving while on the embalming table; live crabs and rats are painfully injected with formaldehyde; an employee is seen drowning a rabbit for fun.¹ Horrific and unspeakable atrocities are committed in the name of science and education at the expense of innocent lives. The only lesson that dissection teaches students is the concept of regarding animals' lives as disposable classroom objects. Respect for all life is a chief principle that should be taught in life science classes.

If a child accepts the idea that it is okay to cut up animals' bodies, he or she undergoes a process of desensitization in a short period of time. Even if the child is not aware of the animal's suffering that accompanies dissection, the child still learns that it is acceptable to manipulate and use the animal's body for his or her own personal purposes. When this occurs, it is a tragedy for the animal, the child, and the world; because there is a direct correlation between cruelty towards animals and human violence.² In an extreme and bizarre example of the desensitizing impacts of dissection, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer attributed his fascination with murder to dissection. In the ninth grade, he dissected a fetal pig and afterwards, he took home its skeleton. He then began to fantasize about cutting up a human body. Though this instance makes a powerful statement about dissection, it is also necessary to consider Jeffrey Dahmer's pre-existing mental conditions.

Dissection can also cause a child to be alienated from science. If the child refuses to dissect an animal because he or she believes the activity to be cruel, insensitive, or morally unsound, the child may lose all interest in science. Bright students have been "turned off" from science because of dissection; it is sad to think how many potentially brilliant minds science may lose due to dissection.

Formaldehyde, also known as the acrid and offensive odor accompanying dissection, is a chemical used to preserve dissection specimens. Deemed by the United States Occupational Safety and Health Administration to be a "toxic and hazardous substance³," formaldehyde has been shown to damage the eyes, cause bronchitis and asthma attacks, severely irritate the skin, and cause impaired respiration. It is also linked to cancer of the throat, nasal passages, and lungs. The long term affects on both students and teachers inhaling formaldehyde during dissection are, at this point, only conjectural; however, it is certain that the inhalation of formaldehyde is an extremely severe health hazard.

Thanks to today's advanced technology, dissection is fast becoming archaic and the world of alternatives to classroom dissection is fascinating and ever-expanding. This era of highly-developed technology has produced computerized dissection programs complete with virtual-reality interactive dissections, three-dimensional technology, quizzes, lab manuals, and adaptable curricula. One such computer program is The Digital Frog 2 from Digital Frog International. This award-winning software features an interactive frog dissection, a comprehensive anatomy study, and a section on the ecology and diversity of frogs; an accompanying lab manual and anatomy workbook reinforces important concepts. Other special features to be found in The Digital Frog 2 include a diagram of a pumping heart (something which is unable to be observed in a preserved dissection specimen), functioning respiration diagrams, and comparisons between the frog and human anatomy.

The Neotek Life Science dissection computer programs feature revolutionary three-dimensional technology. Items literally appear to pop out from the screen! Featuring a lecture mode, a tutorial mode, and a quiz mode, this program allows for versatile teaching methods. Meticulous research and careful design combined with unbelievable three-dimensional graphics make the Neotek programs amazing; in short, these programs are the future. Virtual dissections of the cat, frog, worm, fetal pig, rat, perch, and crayfish are currently available from Neotek. There also exist many other fine computerized alternatives such as the DissectionWorks series and Biolab series. Other very effective types of dissection alternatives include: photographs, three-dimensional models, posters, videos, computer diskettes, charts, anatomy books, and medical journals.

Furthermore, from an economic standpoint, alternatives are far less costly. A typical school science department could easily spend over $3,000.00⁴ per year on a cat dissection while, comparatively, the Neotek program "CatLab", which is complete with state-of-the-art three-dimensional technology, can be purchased for just $85.00 and lasts indefinitely. Or, this program can be borrowed, free-of-charge, from an alternative loan-library, such as the one run by The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS).

The first step to eradicating dissection from school curricula is creating public awareness of the cruelty and atrocities that are committed for dissection. The majority of middle-school, high-school, and even college students are simply not aware of the animal cruelty and suffering that occurs to provide classes with dissection specimens. If these students were aware of the routines and practices of biological suppliers, many more students would object to dissection. As Dr. Jonathon Balcombe, Ph.D., aptly articulated, "If every teacher and student considering dissection were to first witness the capture, handling, and death of each animal they were about to dissect, dissection would fast become an endangered classroom exercise." So, please do all that you can to expose the reality of dissection and foster an awareness of the cruelty that it involves. Address misconceptions regarding dissection if you encounter them; offer information about dissection to science teachers; educate students about the realities of dissection. Please help to make dissection an endangered and, ultimately, extinct classroom activity.

-Heather Gorn, Meow305@aol.com

For more information on dissection alternatives or to view lists and descriptions of alternatives available for loan, please visit:

The Humane Society of the United States: http://www.hsus.org/ace/11368
National Anti-Vivisection Society: http://www.navs.org
American Anti-Vivisection Society: http://www.aavs.org
New England Anti-Vivisection Society: http://www.neavs.org

References

¹ People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, "Classroom Cut-Ups." This video can be seen at: http://www.petatv.com/viv.html

² For further information on the correlation between animal cruelty and human violence, please see: http://www.hsus.org/ace/11462

³ Jonathan Balcombe, The Use of Animals in Higher Education: Problems, Alternatives, & Recommendations (Washington D.C., 2000) page 34.

⁴ Price for 35 cats and other dissection materials (dissection trays, tools, and pins) as calculated by PCRM, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine.