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Urge Medical Schools to Drop Live Dog
Labs As late as the 1980s, many medical schools still trained future doctors by having them operate on live dogs. But times have changed and training technologies have advanced, making dog labs arcane and obsolete. Today, of the 125 medical schools accredited by the Association of American Medical Colleges in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, only 25 still use live animals for medical school training. Of these, only three are known to teach students how to treat humans using live dogs: Louisiana State University, New York Medical College and the Medical College of Wisconsin. Computerized simulators - human dummies that can be programmed to exhibit a variety of realistic physical responses to electrical currents and drugs - can do a much better job of training students for real world medicine than cutting open and killing dogs can. One key advantage of using simulators is that students can repeat medical procedures over and over again until they learn it thoroughly at minimal cost and without any loss of life. Students in a live dog lab may have to kill numerous dogs before they understand the lesson being taught. According to a recent article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Medical College of Wisconsin used 52 dogs earlier this month as part of a lab exercise on the circulatory system. Students in groups of five were each given an anesthetized dog and instructed to shave the hair from the dogs' throats, chests and legs. After connecting them to monitoring devices using intravenous probes, they cut the animals' ribcages open using scalpels and bone saws. Students then observed the dogs' physiological reactions to various chemical injections, electrical jolts to their hearts, and manual stimulation of the heart with their hands. Finally, students were ordered to inject their subjects with lethal doses of potassium, and to take notes as the dogs' hearts failed and they died. Given that more effective and ethical alternatives to using live animals are available, medical schools can choose to end these cruel practices. The implementation of human-based medical training techniques ultimately saves lives, both human and non-human, and teaches students that animals have real value beyond their use as laboratory tools. - Please click here to urge officials at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Louisiana State University to end the use of live dogs in medical training. You can also contact university officials by postal mail, telephone or e-mail. Medical College of
Wisconsin LSUHSC School of
Medicine New York Medical College - IDA's 2006 World Week for Animals In Laboratories (WWAIL) is taking place from April 23rd to 30th, so start making your plans now. WWAIL is a great time to promote humane alternatives to animal experimentation at a university in your community that experiments on animals. If you would like to organize and register an event in your community, IDA can assist you with planning. Visit www.wwail.org for more information and to receive free materials. |