Posted on 06/11/2007 8:11:38 AM PDT by SmithL
San Luis Obispo, Calif. (AP) -- Animal rights activists want San Luis Obispo High School to end anatomy class cat dissections.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals sent a letter to the school asking for a halt to cat dissections.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I agree. They should dissect PETA members instead.
Even though my cat will protest, high school anatomy classes need mammal disections.
Save a cat, dissect an animal rights activist (my apologies to Big & Rich)
Cat - the other white meat.
Well, they might as well ban the earthworm and frog dissections too...don’t they have feelings?
ping
I have to admit, the disections I did in biology class really didn’t do all that much to teach me. Maybe because it was just a Biology I class which had frog as the highest disection. I didn’t take Bio II where there was some type of mammal disection. It would be more important for someone going into a profession where that info could be used (medicine, veterinarian, or more likely for most of my classmates fish gutters or roadside deer butchering).
Reserve that stuff for medical school. There is a plethora of information out there as well as videos on dissection. We don’t need to encourage the sadistic in high school.
People who have cats and dogs as pets are repulsed at the idea of them “dissected when it is not necessary ... in high school. I don’t have earth worms and frogs as pets.
I dissected a cat in college A&P. The cats, from what I could see, had had hard bad lives; were battered, flea-ridden (with preserved fleas), feral and probably untameable, and were likely to have been put down in any case.
At first dissection was repellent, but I came to feel a kind of affection for my cat, a kind of intimate knowledge of how her body was made and worked - is how serial killers feel?
She was pregnant, and had a series of kittens in the horns of her uterus, like beads on a necklace - they were exquisite, less than an inch long with tiny tails and ears and claws - very confirming of pro-life beliefs.
It was a valuable experience indeed, but probably not one to require of high school students as routine - it should be reserved for those who have a true interest in the field.
Mrs VS
Of course, I grew up on a ranch and had already ‘dissected’ hundreds of chickens...as well as some pigs and steers. Ok. So we actually butchered them and put the meat in the freezer. Did a few deer and some rabbits, too. And pheasants, ducks, and geese. I have no problem with using animals as food, but I can’t say I have ever found a use for the knowledge I gained from doing it.
I have no problem with dissecting animals as a teaching tool. However, IMO, dissecting cats can wait until a student is in pre-vet or pre-med.
They already tried that ploy and it failed as it should have. I say we line PETA up and as suggested dissect them instead.
For veterinary or biology students, definitely. But high school students? I never understood how high school dissections prepare the students for anything in the real world.
I hate PETA, but I agree that cats shouldn’t be dissected. If they need to dissect mammals, take mice. Cheaper, less messy, less traumatic.
Yes, by all means replace cat disection with assignments to dig through “nonviable tissue globs” for human fetal stem cells.
Mice are too small for distinguishing the muscles and blood vessels. If you’re just learning the esophagus leads to the stomach leads to the intestine, and the kidneys are back here, you could use an overlay book or plastic model to as much effect.
Dissecting a frog in eighth grade was pointless - dissecting any animal unless you’re going to spend a lot of time on it is fairly pointless.
Mrs VS
(Hiding my kitties)
When you are in high school, it exposes you to things you may only be considering as a path in life. You find your strengths and weaknesses and interests.
And a well rounded education is more than just "diversity training".
There are some who say they don't want a lot of math classes and those who don't want to take English Literature courses.
What about those who are inspired to go to medical school by virtue of "hands on" biology classes which capture their interests and imaginations?
There was a time in this country when highschool aged males thought nothing of gutting a deer, rabbit, squirrel, etc. or worked on a farm where they assisted in butchering hogs, chicken, cattle etc.
I don't think this is untoward. If it's an option, fine, but making it, "not an option," is just to deny kids one more opportunity to learn about something that their peers in the past became aware of as a matter of course.
Sadistic? The animal is dead.
I agree. There is no need for every student to be dissecting cats.
One need not be a member of PETA to be disgusted.
One thing which should be mentioned is the fact that individual pets are stolen from yards and sold for money each year. How many people with pets here would approve of that happening to their loved ones? Make no mistake about it: this is a very dirty business.
Thanks for the posting.
Joe gets it, nmh doesn’t. Med school actually expects students to have already had hands on experience.
Nothing will ever take the place of actual hands on learning. I’d much rather have a surgeon that has had real experience in med school than one that “watched” virtual dissections on a computer.
My husband teaches biology, advanced biology and A&P. The series of dissections are the most looked forward to part of the curriculum by his students.
Disgusting.
I can understand donating dead cats to vet schools...but that's about it.
THere is no reason why in todays world, the kids could not watch a video of a dissection instead of being traumatized in High School. I think that they need to teach more respect for animals to kids today....it teaches compassion and repect. Something kids today DO NOT HAVE!!!!!
I dissected a shark and a fetal pig in college. That was one of my more interesting classes.
So you think depersonalizing the experience by putting it on the level as a video game would teach high schoolers compassion and respect? I tend to think not.
IMHO, if a kid hasn’t learned compassion and respect by high school, it is highly unlikely that he will learn it.
Fetal pigs were still on the dissection list when I was in high school. The only kids who did cats were seniors taking AP Anatomy. For the regular kids who just took the mandatory sciences it was an earthworm, a starfish, some kind of fish and a frog for BIO I. BIO II got a live frog, a fetal pig and a fetal shark. I took physics instead of BIO II because I liked the physics instructor better and because when I had taken BIO I in 9th grade it was in the hour right after a BIO II class, and I still now can remember the smell of walking into that lab room during the time they were doing the sharks...oh did they stink after a bit! Granted this is 11 year old info...so things have probably changed, and I can only speak of how it was in one school, in one state. Perhaps in other states everyone does cats...
I was under the impression that the cats came from animal control...so it’s not like they were running around killing cats for the sole purpose of having high school kids play with their inards. But I do not know that to be a fact, and really have no way of finding out without seeming like a wierdo and calling the local highschool where I am and asking... I also do remember that my info came from the BIO II instructor when trying to calm the nerves of a handful of cat loving 16-17 yr old girls, so...it’s possible he just said that to chill us out! LOL
When in high school my husband sat in the back of science class where the boxes of dead cats sat for the teacher’s biology class. He spent a class period meowing and confusing the teacher.
I suspect that schools purchase the animals for dissection from a biology supply company. I seriously doubt most school systems would go to the local animal shelter and pick up some animals for dissection. Normally, the animals are preserved in formalin or something like that. I doubt most schools would want to deal with that. Now, where biological supply companies get the animals is a totally different question.
Especially since the class was on English Literature. ;)
High school students aren’t on the verge of going to medical school. The overwhelming majority of them are just taking biology to fulfill a requirement, and are more interesting in standing around saying “ewwww gross!” than in learning more than could be learned from a video simulation. This teaches lack of respect for animals, not biology. In college, there’s legitimate reason for students in biology courses at a level intended for science majors and pre-meds to be doing dissections, but not high school. Maybe in a special program for unusually advanced high school students who have already aced AP biology, but not for the run of the mill stuffing-my-resume-with-APs-to-get-into-a-big-name-college students.
Muslims? Actually, I recently took a college biology course and we dissected fetal pigs. I wondered if they'd had any complaints/demands from Muslim students, because in a 600 student course at a public city college, there are certainly a lot of them.
Actually today’s technology can provide the opportunity to do fully interactive video dissections, not just passively sitting and watching a video of somebody else doing it.
:)
I think it made up for having to memorize the periodic table of the elements in chemistry class (boring!!!).
They may not be on the verge of going to medical school but it can be a consideration for them. I decided on pre-med when I was in 10th grade. Many of my friends had decided they wanted to go to med school, vet school, dental school, pharmacy school. Not all of us ended up where we thought we would when we were in high school but it drove a lot of our decisions in high school. (I decided against med school after meeting too many unhappy doctors).
Video simulations and models only teach so much. I recently was certified as an EMT. One of the things we had to learn was CPR. I was talking with a doctor friend who asked me if I had done CPR on a real person yet. I have not. She said the mannequins do not really give you a real understanding of what it’s like to do CPR on a person.
Done properly, hands-on dissection teaches more respect and compassion than video. In my classes, my teachers did not tolerate bad or disrespectful behavior. Of course, while this was in public schools, it was a long time ago. I still contend that video dissections depersonalize the experience. To a generation that has been desensitized by video games and TV, I don’t think video dissections will result in people learning compassion or sensitivity to any great degree.
We dissected frogs in 7th or 8th grade. Good enough. I doubt I could have gotten along with dissecting cats, though.
Forgot to mention that around that same age, I’d managed to slice off a bit of my little finger. Until then, I’d aspired to become a veterinaian. Something about watching the blood drip out while the doc stitched the flap back in place ...
“This teaches lack of respect for animals, not biology.”
In your opinion. You don’t know what the kids actually learn, do you? I do.
But useful, if you want to be a chemist.
Peta probably wants a contract to supply carcasses if the dissections continue.
“For veterinary or biology students, definitely. But high school students? I never understood how high school dissections prepare the students for anything in the real world.”
At the prep school where I teach high school science, anatomy and physiology is only offered to seniors. It is a difficult course that uses a college textbook. Nearly all the students who tackle it are interested in a career in the health sciences.
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