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South Sanpete School District Decides to End Future Live Dog Experiments

Reports have surfaced regarding Doug Bjerregaard, a substitute biology teacher at Gunnison Valley High School in Utah's South Sanpete School District, who took his students to a local veterinary clinic to witness the cutting up of a living dog in an effort to "educate" them firsthand about human anatomy. This dog was brought from a shelter, and a high school science class watched as she was anesthetized and cut open on a cold surgical table while still alive, in order for functioning organs to be observed.

Treating animals like scientific "tools" is clearly not the message that teachers should be sending to impressionable students. James Petersen, the superintendent for the school district notes the following in a public statement: "We wish to apologize that the incident happened. Such procedures have not been a part of our curriculum in the past and will not be allowed in the future." While we applaud this step in the right direction, we are encouraging the district to enact a policy prohibiting the use of all animals in its curriculum.

Instead of using animals to teach students the basics of human anatomy, teachers should use one of the following popular methods:

Non-animal manikins and simulators
Educational videos
Multimedia computer simulations
Clinical practice and human-cadaver observation

Significant progressive strides have been made in reducing the number of animals who end up on school dissection tables. Additionally, even many well-regarded universities no longer use live animals, such as the University of Utah School of Medicine. And countless schools have incorporated the progressive animal-free learning tools listed above.

Superintendent Petersen has welcomed PETA's overtures to consider adopting these alternatives. We look forward to working with Mr. Petersen, and we are grateful for his swift and compassionate decision.

Learn how to take a stand against cruel animal experiments at your school.

Give the Animals 5

PETA has identified five tests on animals that could be stopped today without any threat to public health and safety. Simple, effective alternatives to 5 common animal tests.

Cut Out Dissection

Dissection is the practice of cutting into and studying animals. Every year, millions of animals are used in secondary and college science classes. Each animal cut open and discarded represents not only a life lost, but also one piece of a trail of animal abuse and environmental havoc.

Help Modernize Medical Education

The majority of medical schools in the United States, including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale, have replaced their use of live animals in physiology, pharmacology, and/or surgical-training exercises with humane and effective non-animal teaching methods.

"Life Sciences" Kill

Each year, college and university "life sciences" programs consume thousands of animal lives in cruel, crude, and unnecessary physiology demonstrations.

Medical Training

Read how the TraumaMan® non-animal training simulator is changing the face of medical education.

PCRM's Dissection Alternatives

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